The CAUSE Ambassador program has been awarded $500 in support of their efforts to work toward the first-ever Damascus Day, a day of caring through The National 4-H Council's 2002 Youth In Action Community Service grant opportunity. The CAUSE (Communities Allied to Uplift Success in Education) Program consists of fourteen eighth grade students from Damascus Middle School and four Emory & Henry College students. The program provides opportunities for youth to develop leadership skills, community knowledge, communication skills, and one-on-one mentoring experience with college students, and to build partnerships between youth and adults for the benefit of the places in which they live. Students participating in the program are: Mary Alice Slavik, Leah Wilson, Alicia Cook, Bonnie Van Dyke, Mary Clark, Crystal Blevins, Amanda Caywood, Montanan McCall, Naomi Kestner, Luke Parks, Jack Dorsey, Sarah Walls, Andy Wilson, and Jessica Eden.

The Appalachian Center for Community Service at E & H will match this funding. The grant proposal was written entirely by the youth in response to their concerns about a need for more positive activities for youth in the community.