Salute Our Heroes: Hayden Graduate goes down in history for receiving prestigious award twice

TOPEKA, Kan. (WIBW) - In this week’s Salute Our Heroes we spotlight a Hayden Highschool graduate that has gone above and beyond the call for community service earning herself two very special awards.

“She just has a really great humility. She’s not super outspoken but yet does what she can to help other people,” says Coordinator of Faith Formation, Jared Samson.

Vicki Sims has made a name for herself at Hayden Catholic High School after receiving two Mother Theresa awards.

“Every year each class has one student that’s picked that kinda shows their spirit of Mother Theresa she was a saint that gave her life away serving the poorest people that probably lived in Calcutta. So we give this award away to those students that do the most hours. We don’t just look at the number of hours we also look at how that affected them so their spirit as well as their reputation around their school and how they show the heart that we are trying to show in them which is the heart of Jesus,” says Samson.

The school says the prestigious Mother Theresa awards are only given to students that display three qualifications, an exceptional amount of service hours, a love for service through their reflection essays and going out of their way to serve others.

Students are only required to complete 20 total hours a year and Vicki has completed hundreds of hours, helping teach, pack food for the hungry and more.

“For the past four years, I’ve been going to Holy Family and painting on the doors, and bulletins every summer so it starts from 7 am, until 2 that’s how I got my hours. I also throughout the year especially through fall and spring I was a teacher for first communion at the School of Religion,” says Mother Theresa Award recipient, Vicki Sims.

Since 1998, Vicki is the only student to receive two Mother Theresa awards.

“It was actually at graduation and they were doing awards and I was like okay I don’t know if I’m going to get it or not and then they called my name, twice in a row I was in shock more but I was happy with it again and I loved wearing both of my medals at graduation,” says Sims.

Youth Ministry Coordinator, Jared Samson says Vicki truly embodies Mother Theresa’s legacy.

“She donated countless hours of her time on the project at Holy Family and it just shows that she is really willing to give to other people and part of the community and that’s just something that we really value here at Hayden,” says Samson.

Vicki says to her it’s more than just community service.

“Honestly have fun with it a lot of people tend to think community service is just a forceful things but honestly, if you have a talent or like talking to people you’ll be perfectly fine. As long as you’re content with your feelings and you’re honest with yourself you’ll have a great time,” says Vicki.

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