November 24, 2015. Aurora’s Matt Hawkins is someone to admire. A senior at Aurora’s Smoky Hill High School, he is bright, engaging and focused, with concrete goals and aspirations for the future. Positive civic engagement is also important to Matt, and is something he practices in many different areas of his life.

Matt has been involved in Boy Scouts since he was in kindergarten, and is currently working towards his Eagle Scout merit badge with Troop 749. With his troop, Matt displays a clear commitment to community service, engaging in service projects like working at local soup kitchens and participating in spring and fall cleanups at Holy Love Lutheran Church in Aurora.

Busy and dedicated, he maintains a job at a local elementary school, and participates in a youth group through his church, which also involves service work in locations throughout the metro area. This past summer, Matt’s commitment to community brought him into contact with Aurora Sister Cities International, when he helped contribute to the organization’s Book Drive for Ethiopia. After hearing about the drive, Matt took it upon himself to put up flyers in his neighborhood asking for donations for a group of 76 orphans residing at an elementary school visited by the Aurora Sister Cities delegation this past February. This led to a significant amount of school supplies, clothes, toiletries, dictionaries and tote bags being collected, which are now in the process of being shipped along with thousands of books to Adama, Ethiopia, Aurora’s sister city.

Next year Matt will be heading to college to major in accounting, and he hopes to stay local. Considering his drive to help others and improve his community, that is something for us all to celebrate. Aurora Sister Cities International would like to thank Matt for his kind, generous and helpful support.