ATHLETICS: Lucas Levy
Senior Lucas Levy’s project that earned him the Silver Knight nomination in Athletics is centered around making golf accessible to disabled youth. He began working on this project after seeing former classmate and Silver Knight nominee in Athletics Aiden Barreras develop it last year. The project aligns seamlessly with Levy’s interest for golf and desire to spread motivation and positivity in the sport.
“I just went to one event at the beginning of last year, and I instantly knew I wanted to be a part of this,” Levy said. “At the end of my junior year I was offered the opportunity to take over the project, and without question I said yes.”
His project’s focus on supporting and encouraging inclusivity has increased awareness in many places, from around MPSH to local golf courses for events. Driving for Inclusivity holds service events at local golf courses and even at MPSH during lunchtime.
“My favorite memory is one of the students I helped, I gave them a few tweaks to their swing, and they actually started hitting all the way to the cafeteria,” Levy said.
As the head of Driving for Inclusivity, Levy has taken on multiple responsibilities from filing for grants to connecting with local golf courses to plan events. His dedication to continuing the project has led the local community to help Levy with his mission.
“I have people contacting me to donate clubs, balls and equipment, and it has just really built everything up,” Levy said.
With the organization’s growing scale, Levy has faced obstacles in connecting others to his project. Nonetheless, he has worked hard to overcome these challenges.
“It’s tough explaining what the project is to the golf courses,” Levy said. “I’ve been rejected before, and I know it’s not their number one priority, but I’ve worked around it.”
Aside from Driving for Inclusivity, Levy is on MPSH’s Boy’s Golf team who went to the state finals, as well as the financial literacy club. Outside of school, Levy also participates in sharing financial literacy advice that shares effective business strategies with various schools and temples around the Miami-Dade County area.
With Driving for Inclusivity in full swing, Levy remains busy helping our disabled community one person at a time, and he hopes to tee up golf inclusivity for years to come.
BUSINESS: Daniel Mazer
When Miami Palmetto Senior High senior Daniel Mazer first visited a homeless shelter in eighth grade, he did not expect one conversation to change the way he saw the world. Today, Mazer is the head of Solution Youth, a nonprofit organization that has delivered over ten thousand pillows and pillow cases to homeless shelters across South Florida. As a result of his service and leadership, Mazer has earned the Silver Knight in Business nomination for his project.
“This started when my eighth-grade biology teacher took my brother and I to the Chapman homeless shelter, and my brother and I asked the residents, ‘What’s one thing you wish you could call your own?’ and the residents responded by saying they wanted their own pillows, and I thought I could make that happen,” Mazer said.
Mazer and his brother left that day determined to fulfill their wish, and within months they launched their first collection drive. That single moment sparked what would grow into the Pillow Party, the signature initiative of Solution Youth.
Today, Solution Youth hosts fall and spring collection drives that gather about eight hundred pillows and pillow cases each season. Four hundred are donated to the North Chapman Shelter and four hundred to the South Chapman Shelter. Coordinating the drive requires constant communication with shelter directors, route planning for deliveries and partnerships with retailers and donors across Miami-Dade County.
“We have to go to hundreds of different Targets and Kohl’s and different locations to pick up pillows, which takes hours of driving as far as the Everglades and as North as Palm Beach to get pillows,” Mazer said.
This year, Mazer led Solution Youth through the process of becoming an official 501 (c)(3) nonprofit, which recognizes them officially by the IRS. He now oversees a board of student leaders and manages fundraising, logistics and distribution. Still, his favorite aspect of this organization remains being able to see a shipping truck stacked to the roof with pillows ready to be donated.
Mazer emphasized how the experience has not only strengthened his leadership skills, but has also taught him several values that he will carry with him.
“I have grown a deeper sense of appreciation and to be grateful for what I have, and to be mindful of what I can do for others,” Mazer said.
His nomination for the Silver Knight Award reflects those lessons. Mazer is nominated for the business category, which honors students who show exceptional initiative, problem solving and long term commitment to community service. For Mazer, the nomination is both an acknowledgement of the years of work behind Solution Youth and an opportunity to inspire others. He hopes that sharing his project encourages more young people to look for problems in their own communities and take initiative.
Outside of his nonprofit work, Mazer is deeply involved in school and civic life. He serves as Vice President of Service for National Honors Society, Student Council President and Finance Chair for the Pink Club. Additionally, he also works for a real estate broker.
As Solution Youth continues to grow, Mazer views his Silver Knight nomination as a reminder of what young leaders can do when they believe in a mission. He hopes the recognition brings more attention to the shelters he serves and to the simple truth that inspired his work in the first place: everyone deserves a pillow of their own.
