At the Brandon Groveland Youth Assistance awards ceremony held April 30, Notre Dame fifth grader Katherine Schmidt received the organization’s highest honor, a Gold Star Award, for special recognition in service to her community. Schmidt spent more than 300 volunteer hours dedicated to OATS, a therapeutic riding stable in Clarkston. She received recognition certificates from more than a dozen public officials, including the governor and Congressman Mike Bishop.
For more than two years, Schmidt has been volunteering at OATS, or Offering Alternative Therapy with Smiles, a therapeutic riding stable for people with special needs. Her duties at OATS include mucking stalls, hauling feed, brushing horses, leading horses with riders through lessons, and encouraging her OATS friends (the therapy participants) through their struggles.
She also has done fundraising and organized services activities to help out when and where needed. During the 2013-14 winter, Schmidt’s efforts were particularly useful when water pipes in a barn at the stable froze and burst, flooding the tack room and feed storage, requiring tens of thousands of dollars of reconstruction.
Schmidt is the youngest volunteer at OATS and, according to Gretchen Hurlbert, who is the organization’s volunteer coordinator, “She is the best at what she does.”
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About Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy
Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy is a private, Catholic, independent, coeducational day school located in Oakland County. The school's upper division enrolls students in grades nine through twelve and has been named one of the nation's best 50 Catholic high schools (Acton Institute) four times since 2005. Notre Dame's middle and lower divisions enroll students in jr. kindergarten through grade eight. All three divisions are International Baccalaureate "World Schools." NDPMA is conducted by the Marist Fathers and Brothers and is accredited by the Independent Schools Association of the Central States and the North Central Association Commission on Accreditation and School Improvement. For more on Notre Dame Preparatory School and Marist Academy, visit the school's home page at www.ndpma.org.