Birdsboro >> The National Liberty Museum recently celebrated its 18th annual TD Bank Young Heroes Awards and a Daniel Boone Area High School graduate was among the honorees.
“Each year we look for young people who have championed liberty through civic engagement, conflict resolution, diversity promotion, and school or community leadership,” said Gwen Borowsky, executive director of the National Liberty Museum. “These winners truly represent what we at the National Liberty Museum strive for every day – encouraging people of all ages to find their own place in the story of liberty … It is an honor to be able to recognize these young individuals for the tremendous work they have done.”
Daniel Boone Area High School graduate Josephine Reinhardt was one of the 14 recipients. Reinhardt was recognized for her Gold Award project.
“Open only to girls in high school, the Girl Scout Gold Award is the most prestigious award in the world for girls – and the most difficult to earn – and it’s only available to Girl Scouts,” the Girl Scout website states. “As a Gold Award Girl Scout, you’re challenged to change the world – or at least your corner of it.”
The Gold Award is the Girl Scout equivalent of the Eagle Scout Award, according to Reinhardt.
Reinhardt, who will be attending Colorado State University in the fall, acquired a water-born illness four years ago in Costa Rica. She recovered within months but realized from her rare parasitic experience that people weren’t as lucky as she was.
“My project was geared toward third world countries and preventable illnesses,” Reinhardt said. “It was really important to me.”
Reinhardt, who has been a Girl Scout of 12 years, teamed up with Hands Up for Haiti, a “medical humanitarian organization” committed to helping people of northern Haiti, according to the group’s website.
“They said they needed hygiene and maternity care,” Reinhardt said.
Reinhardt created care packages of items such as tooth paste, tooth brushes, and soap.
She set up a table outside of her local Redner’s Market for a donation drive.
“I actually received all the items in just two days,” Reinhardt said. “It was really amazing to see the community willing to do that.”
The maternity packages additionally contained baby wash, wash clothes, onesies and other things of that nature.
“The thing that was special about the maternity kit was there were three handmade diapers in them,” Reinhardt said.
Reinhardt, who said she loves to sew, taught her team to create handmade diapers from cloth she got from Goodwill. The diapers are meant to fit newborns as well as 1- and 2-year-olds.
“If they do last, they can use them on later kids,” Reinhardt said.
In the end Reinhardt sewed over 120 handmade cloth diapers and 30 blankets for newborns, according to the press release.
But it doesn’t stop there for Reinhardt.
“I would definitely like to continue this,” she said, mentioning encouraging other girls to take up a similar project.
At Colorado State, Reinhardt will be studying environmental engineering. She hopes to join the Peace Core upon graduation, where she’d help people “use the resources around them,” through treating water and energy conservation.
“I was raised in a household that always composted and always recycled. It surprised me how many households didn’t,” Reinhardt said. “I want to bring this to a bigger level and save Earth.”
The award ceremony was emceed by NBC10’s Via Sikahema, according to the press release. Each Young Hero was presented with a “special medal and certificate to commemorate the occasion.”
A plaque featuring all the winners’ stories will be displayed for a year in the Museum’s Young Heroes Exhibit.
The 14 recipients of the Young Heroes Awards were chosen from among 67 national and international nominations.
