Applications are being accepted now for the Prudential Spirit of Community Awards which recognize New Jersey’s top youth volunteers of the year.

Students in grades 5 through 12 are invited to apply if they have made meaningful contributions to their communities through volunteer service within the past 12 months. Two winners will be selected, and they will each receive $1,000, an engraved silver medallion and an all-expense-paid trip to Washington, D.C. in May 2019.

Two students will be selected from each state, and they will be invited to compete for national honors and receive additional cash awards for themselves and for the nonprofit, charitable organization of their choice.

The application deadline is Nov. 6, 2018. The application is available at http://spirit.prudential.com and www.nassp.org/spirit .

Last year’s winners from New Jersey were Alexa Grabelle, 17, of Voorhees, and Rileigh Leighton, 14, of Williamstown. Grabelle founded a literacy service organization that collected 130,000 books over the last six years that were provided to children from low-income households. Leighton, 14, of Williamstown, is the founder and CEO of a nonprofit organization called “Rileigh’s Rainbows” that provides free school supplies to students in need in her school district.