Girl Scout Megan isn’t a stranger to helping to the homeless–every year she volunteers with her church at a homeless shelter, serving food and talking with people who come in for a meal. She also delivered bag lunches to homeless in Baltimore City with her youth group. When she began thinking about what to do for her Girl Scout Gold Award project, she decided to take her volunteer work to help the homeless a step further.

“Through my volunteer work I was able to meet to a lot of homeless people and talk with them. That made me realize I wanted to help them more,” she said.

Megan, a student at Kennedy Krieger High School, launched her project “Baskets of Hope” to help families in the H.O.P.E. for All program, which provides homeless families with housing and assistance to help them get back on their feet. She reached out to several churches in her community and asked for donations of toiletries, cleaning supplies and other comforts of home to give to the families. She also presented details of her project to her classmates, informing them about the impacts of homelessness and urged them to make a difference in their own neighborhoods.

Laura Phillips, Megan’s project adviser, said Megan insisted on completing her project and sticking to her plans even when she was facing major challenges.

“I was very impressed with her dedication to the project and to getting it done,” she said. “There were a couple of spots where we thought we’d have to give up or come up with something different, and she was very adamant about persevering, getting it done and helping the homeless.”

Megan’s determination paid off. In the end, the amount of donations she received exceeded her goals and she was able to help more than 20 families through her project. The project doesn’t stop there, though–Megan’s youth group will carry on the project annually.

“I was really glad I was able to help so many people,” she said. “It made me feel really accomplished.”

Megan is one of 138 central Maryland Girl Scouts receiving the Girl Scout Gold Award this year. She is the first student from the Kennedy Krieger High School to receive the Girl Scout Gold Award.