Primary Bank Young Hero Winners

When Primary Bank launched their Young Hero Scholarship Program at the beginning of the year, the goal was to discover service-oriented, community-minded high school students throughout the State. The most pleasant surprise was the volume and limitless generosity of so many high school-aged students in New Hampshire.

Primary Bank selected a dozen altruistic, high school students who have made tangible differences in their communities as scholarship winners, with two rising to the top as the Primary Bank Young Hero of the Year and the People’s Choice Award Winner. All twelve students were honored at a special reception recognizing their achievements and receiving citations from New Hampshire Governor Sununu.

Primary Bank selected Pinkerton Academy student Emma Polyukhovich as the Young Hero of the Year. Over the past two years, she has volunteered countless hours collecting humanitarian aid and has raised thousands of dollars to support relief for her family’s native country of Ukraine.

The People’s Choice award was chosen by the general public through a social media campaign featuring self- submitted videos from each of our twelve scholarship winners. Nearly 7,000 votes were cast to help award this honor to recent Pelham High School graduate Corinne Kelly. Corinne has been recognized for her work with Operation Care for Troops, for whom she has helped send more than 10,000 care packages to deployed military among many other volunteer activities.

Photo Left to Right: Corinne Kelly, Emma Polyukhovich, Jillian LeBlanc, Angelina Townsend, Kathryn Mikol, Governor Chris Sununu, Raquel DeLeo, Sienna Muccioli, Sophia Baird, Ryan Rankins, Gibson Griffith. Unavailable to attend: Brooke Adams, Calvin Plante. You can meet all 12 Young Heroes Here.

Meet the Winners

2023 Primary Bank Young Hero of the Year Emma Polyukhovich Emma is an active member of her NH community and attends Pinkerton Academy, where she is an AP honors student. Over the past two years, Emma has volunteered more than 250 hours supporting relief for her native country of Ukraine. She has organized and held several fundraisers, hosted raffles and donation drives raising more than $15,000 in donations and collecting more than 2,000 pounds of humanitarian relief. Emma has worked with multiple non-profits including the ‘Common Man for Ukraine’, and ‘Give Help Kyiv.’ Through these efforts, Emma has been able to provide thousands of dollars of baby supplies, winter clothing and food packages for the elderly living in Ukraine. In addition, Emma is an accomplished dancer and holds the distinction of representing the State of New Hampshire as Miss Capital Area's Teen 2024.
2023 Primary Bank People's Choice Corinne Kelly Corinne is a recent graduate of Pelham High School and was recognized as a Young Hero for her work supporting veterans and active-duty service members. Since 2020, she has assisted in shipping more than 10,000 care packages while volunteering with ‘Operation Care for Troops.’ She has written and won two grants and has created a nationwide network of card makers partnering with ‘Stampin' Up.’ Her homemade cards, which include a personal note of encouragement total more than 8,000. She has also spearheaded supply drives such as ‘Treats 4 Troops’ and ‘Socks 4 Soldiers.’ As an ambassador in the Girl Scout program, Corinne earned her Gold Award for volunteering with the US Library of Congress by interviewing and archiving stories of veterans who served in WWII to the present day. In addition to volunteering more than 1,000 hours with Operation Care, she has helped more than 40 other non-profit organizations, totaling thousands of hours of service. Ms. Kelly also holds the distinction of representing the State of New Hampshire as Miss Auburn and is the former Miss NH Outstanding Teen 2022. Corinne truly lives her motto of ‘service before self.’
Meet All 12 Primary Bank Young Heroes

2023 Primary Bank Young Hero of the Year
Emma Polyukhovich

Emma is an active member of her NH community and attends Pinkerton Academy, where she is an AP honors student.

Over the past two years, Emma has volunteered more than 250 hours supporting relief for her native country of Ukraine. She has organized and held several fundraisers, hosted raffles and donation drives raising more than $15,000 in donations and collecting more than 2,000 pounds of humanitarian relief.

Emma has worked with multiple non-profits including the ‘Common Man for Ukraine’, and ‘Give Help Kyiv.’
Through these efforts, Emma has been able to provide thousands of dollars of baby supplies, winter clothing and food packages for the elderly living in Ukraine.

In addition, Emma is an accomplished dancer and holds the distinction of representing the State of New Hampshire as Miss Capital Area's Teen 2024.

2023 Primary Bank People's Choice
Corinne Kelly

Corinne is a recent graduate of Pelham High School and was recognized as a Young Hero for her work supporting veterans and active-duty service members.

Since 2020, she has assisted in shipping more than 10,000 care packages while volunteering with ‘Operation Care for Troops.’ She has written and won two grants and has created a nationwide network of card makers partnering with ‘Stampin' Up.’ Her homemade cards, which include a personal note of encouragement total more than 8,000. She has also spearheaded supply drives such as ‘Treats 4 Troops’ and ‘Socks 4 Soldiers.’

As an ambassador in the Girl Scout program, Corinne earned her Gold Award for volunteering with the US Library of Congress by interviewing and archiving stories of veterans who served in WWII to the present day.
In addition to volunteering more than 1,000 hours with Operation Care, she has helped more than 40 other non-profit organizations, totaling thousands of hours of service.

Ms. Kelly also holds the distinction of representing the State of New Hampshire as Miss Auburn and is the former Miss NH Outstanding Teen 2022. Corinne truly lives her motto of ‘service before self.’

Meet All 12 Primary Bank Young Heroes