Pubdate: Sun, 25 Feb 2007
Source: Sun-Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, FL)
Copyright: 2007 Sun-Sentinel Company
Contact:  http://www.sun-sentinel.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/159
Author: C. Ron Allen
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth)

HER DEDICATION DRAWS NOTICE

Eighth-Grader Takes A Lead In Student Outreach Programs

CORAL SPRINGS - When Natasha Khan isn't in class,  chances are she's 
promoting acts of kindness, raising  money for research or 
encouraging other students to  avoid drugs.

"I like helping children," said Khan, 13, an  eighth-grader at 
Ramblewood Middle School.

The teen's dedication to humanitarian efforts is  comparable to that 
of an adult's, her teachers said.

As president of three student-based organizations, she  is 
responsible for all the community service projects  at the school. 
Khan often makes posters, decorates  bulletin boards to promote 
campaigns or events and  works behind the scenes, school officials said.

"She gives of herself for the sole purpose of making  others who are 
less fortunate better," said Robbin  Chamoff, peer center coordinator 
at Ramblewood Middle  School. "She gives hours and hours of her 
after-school  time, of her morning hours, of anytime she has a spare 
moment ... to make another child's life better."

Under her leadership as president of Crime Watch, the  Human 
Relations Council and the Just Say No clubs,  students raise money to 
support the University of  Miami's Linda Ray Intervention Center, a 
research preschool for Miami babies whose mothers used 
cocaine  during pregnancy.

"These children don't have parents. The state is their  parents," Khan said.

The students also make greeting cards in memory of  military 
personnel and law enforcement officers who  died in the line of duty. 
The students sell the cards  for $1 and give the money to the 
Intervention Center.

The same 15 students make up all three groups and each  week they 
meet as a different body.

The Just Say No club decorated a bulletin board with  posters and 
other material to urge students to avoid  using drugs.

"We help kids realize that the drug way is not the way  to go ... 
that they shouldn't do drugs," said Khan, who  was recently honored 
as a South Florida Sun-Sentinel  Kid of Character for responsibility 
in the program that  recognizes students who best exemplify the 
Broward County School District's character education traits.

"She deserves it," Hina Khan said of her daughter. "She  is very 
hardworking and she never gets tired."

She carries such caring and compassion to her home,  Hina Khan said. 
When her daughter was in kindergarten,  she took extra lunch for 
friends who didn't have lunch,  Khan said.

This is one in a series of stories on students who best  exemplify 
the Broward County School District's eight  character education 
traits -- cooperation,  responsibility, citizenship, kindness, 
respect, honesty, self-control and tolerance -- and patriotism  as 
part of all eight.
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