This is an area of us to highlight outstanding community service work by our members.
If you are a member and would like to be highlighted for the outstanding community service
you have done, submit your story and a photo to: glosigirlslouisville@gmail.com.
LEADING LADIES
CLARA , AGE 11
Caring for your community is very important. Whether it's donating materials, volunteering, or just
helping someone out can make all the difference. Let me tell you about some ways I have helped
my community.
I love to collect items to charity. Within the past year, I have donated over 300 items to St. Joseph
Children's Home with the help of Star One Pageants. I am proud to say that I won Community
Queen at the Newport on the Levee preliminary. It made me feel really good to be recognized for
helping people.
A couple weeks ago my grandma and I sorted through my closet. We went through almost all my
clothes and picked out the one that I had grown out of. It was really hard work. Then we donated
them to our local Goodwill store. Goodwill helps the community by helping people find jobs and
helping by providing training programs. I am glad to have done that because I know that it will
help those less fortunate than I.
I have also donated over 1,500 items to Military Missions so far this year. I love to help out with Military Missions, especially because my Uncle Stevie was deployed as a Marine for 10 months and returned home in early July. I am proud of what Stevie does for our country. I like to think that some of those donations helped him and maybe one of my 130 handwritten thank-you notes reached him while he was overseas.
Another way I help others is to take care of my little cousin Tre, my Uncle Stevie's son. Both my cousins, Tre and Kennedee, have "Daddy Bears." They are teddy bears in camouflage outfits that have to be sprayed with cologne because "that's what daddy smells like." They miss him very much. I love to play with Tre and feed him his "Chucky Charms" in the morning.
Volunteering is also something that I believe helps a community. Each year, my family and I are on a volunteering team that paints benches and makes, paints, and pots plants for a local school in need. I am doing that activity again for another school in late July of this year. I also worked at my annual school festival, at the duck pond game and at the hairspray booth. Spraying my friend’s hair different colors was fun!
Donating doesn’t just help people, it helps animals too! We donated money to a local animal shelter to help a dog who was found in a ditch by the side of the highway. He had previously had a broken leg and needed to get an operation to help him because his leg hadn’t healed properly. Turns out after we visited him we decided to bring him home and give him a family. Today he is our happy, playful dog named Reese, who couldn’t be more energetic!
As you can see, I am involved in many activities to help others. I believe that my actions and donations, no matter how big or small, make a difference.
MAKAYLA, AGE 9
My name is Makayla. I am currently 9 years old. In the fall I will be a 4th grader. I have 3 siblings,
2 younger sisters and 1 brother.
In October of 2010, my mother who was 33 weeks pregnant with my baby brother went into
pretermlabor. Her water broke sending her to the University of Louisville Hospital. Her Doctors
there put her onimmediate bed rest. She was there for almost a week when my brother was born.
Theron was born October 10th 2010. He was a little over 3 pounds when he was born. He was
smaller than my baby dolls.He spent 2 weeks in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at the Hospital.
He was in an incubator that waspurchased and donated by the March of Dimes. My brother was
so tiny he could fit in the palm of mymoms hand. When I went to the hospital to visit my mom and
my brother I was the first person to holdmy brother. Theron was finally able to come home about
the time his actual due date came around.
Our family knows firsthand the challenges associated with prematurity. My Aunt went into preterm labor resulting in the loss of her son Zachary. She would never be able to hold her baby and watch him grow. She would never know what it was like to hear him call her mom. Each year our family joins together with hundreds of other families from our area to take a walk. A walk that serves as remembrance for those that were born too early. Those that fought a good fight but grew tired and left this world behind, we walk for those families that grieve and strive to build awareness, we walk for those that were able to fight and beat the odds and we walk to help raise money to purchase and donate equipment to the Hospitals and Neonatal Intensive Care Units that care for these babies. As a family we continue to walk in remembrance of my cousin Zachary but we also walk in honor of my baby brother who beat the odds. Today our family walks as Theron’s Team.
In 2010, after my brother was born I became Team Captain of Theron’s Team. With the help of my family I have organized numerous fundraisers to include Bowling for Babies a fundraiser at E’town Bowling Lanes, a Fundraiser Night at Los Chalupas, I maintained and ran a hot dog stand sponsored by Price Less Foods, held a Silent Auction and Raffle with items that were donated from local businesses, sold purple March for Babies Bracelets, placed and collected March for Babies collection buckets at local businesses, hosted a Fundraising Pageant through Star One, and conducted numerous on air interviews and public service announcements on the Big Cat 105.5 to help raise awareness in my community.
In 2012, I raised $2332.02 for March for Babies and was given the President’s Award for being the 69th Top Youth Walker in the United States. In 2013, I combined two things that I love, raising money for March for Babies and Pageants. With the help of Star One I was able to host a pageant with all proceeds going to benefit March for Babies. This year I was able to donate $3202.55. Through every pageant or fundraiser I am able to meet many different types of people, build my confidence, I strive to help others, and strive to remain on the Honor Roll, and maintain the spirit of the Pageant Spirit Award that I was given. I try to live by our motto “It’s not about the size of the crown you wear it’s the size of the impact you have while wearing it that counts the most”.
