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The Lapeer School District earlier this month honored a Lapeer High School junior for receiving a special distinction from the youth organization Young Marines.

“It is our pleasure on behalf of the New School Board of Education, Central Office Leadership Team, our students, staff and our entire community to recognize Isabella Benson as the Young Marine of the Year,” superintendent Matt Wandrie said at a June 7 board meeting.

Young Marines, which focuses on “the mental, moral and physical development” of 8th graders through high school students, gives awards each year, with the highest recognition being the National Young Marine of the Year (NYMOY). 

According to its website, the program was created in 1965 to promote a healthy, drug-free lifestyle through leadership, teamwork and self-discipline.

The Lapeer School Board played a short video highlighting Benson’s time in the Young Marines, which she joined when she was 10, prior to inviting her to the podium.

“She is involved with National Honor Society, is currently the junior class council president in addition to her own accolades, which we just witnessed,” Wandrie said. “Isabella has earned the rank of sergeant major in the youth organization Young Marines and was awarded the top honor nationally this past April 2023.”

Benson told the board she was unfamiliar with Young Marines when she first learned about the program. 

“I just saw the uniforms like, my dad was a Marine, I was like that’s so cool, I love it!,” Benson said. “But I didn't really know what it was until a few years into the program. I started going to leadership schools and meeting other people from other other states across the country. Not just Michigan [and] Ohio, but people from California, Hawaii, all sorts of places.”

Benson also discussed the benefits of the program.

“The connections that you make are just so valuable,” she said. “This taught me so much about life in general, community service, appreciation, just like those core values that people don't really get at such a young age. It's just a completely different experience. And now where I'm at in this program, it's my job to teach those same values to everybody else.”

Benson received the NYMOY distinction at a conference at Dale City, Virginia.

As stated on the program’s website, “The NYMOY travels to other units throughout the country to lead, motivate and serve as a role model for the program. In addition, the NYMOY travels around the world to participate in remembrances and ceremonies such as the Reunion of Honor on Iwo Jima, the Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day in Hawaii and the National Navajo Code Talkers Day in Arizona.