Cheyenne Teen Wins Youth of the Year

A Cheyenne teenager has won the Boys and Girls Club Wyoming Youth of the Year Award. Fourteen year old Marty Hernandez of Cheyenne won the competition on Tuesday, finishing ahead of competitors from Casper and Park County.

Criteria for the award included such things as character, poise, speaking ability and the ability to overcome obstacles in life. Hernandez has overcome  challenges including being born with  cerebral palsy and never knowing his father, according to a release from the Boys and Girls Club. But he told an audience Tuesday at the Cheyenne Holiday Inn that club members have never judged him and that he feels at home there.

Hernandez receives a four year tuition and fees scholarship  to the University of Wyoming as well as a cash prize totaling $1500. He also will advance to the regional Boys and Girls Club Competition June 3-4 in Dallas, Texas.

He will be joined in that competition by another Cheyenne-area teen, Amanda Markus of F.E. Warren Air Force Base, who was the Wyoming Military Boys and Girls Club Youth of the Year. The clubs located on military bases hold a seperate competition on the state level.