Young Achiever profile

Community service helps Grace Dearing win

Community service work helped 12-year-old Grace Anne Dearing win one of 10 2007 Gateway Young Achiever awards. And she's been continuing that service work during her summer vacation.

This fall, Grace will be a 7th grader at McKinley CJA School in the City of St. Louis. The Young Achiever awards are given to 10 elementary, middle and high school students for outstanding academic, community and church accomplishments for the 2006-2007 year.

Young Achiever winners receive a $1,000 savings bond and a chance to compete in the national YA competition.

Grace Anne Dearing

(Young Saint Louis.com included a listing of all 10 of the YA winners in the May edition. Then, in June, YSL.com started a series of individual profiles of elementary and middle school winners. We will continue monthly profiles through the end of 2007.

(For previous YA coverage, click on Past Stories and visit May, June and/or July editions. For more about Young Achievers, visit www.youngachievers.us.)

This summer, Grace Dearing has continued some service projects from the school year. But, she's also added a couple new ones.

She was a member of Grace United Methodist Church's mission team that went to Kennett, Mo., to remodel homes for the poor. She helped put up drywall, lay floor tile, nail sub-flooring and paint. Her father, James, also was on the team.

Grace helping package food at the Grace Church's Food Pantry

"I was about the youngest one on the mission team," she said.

Later in the summer, she was an aide at a Girl Scout day camp held in Wilmore Park near her home.

Other service projects that extended into the summer from the school year were work in the Grace Church's Food pantry and the church's giant Junkique garage sale. Proceeds from these projects go to charity.

At Junkique, Grace works in the Baked Goods department. That's where homemade baked products are offered for sale. Grace and her family supplied brownies and Rice Krispie treats and then she helped with sales.

At the Food Pantry, Grace is one of the people who break down big packages of food donated by food stores. "Also, because most people don't like to do them, I help with double-bagging paper sacks used by people who come to the pantry," she said.

In the past, she has worked on different events to benefit Kingdom House, a religious-based organization that helps St. Louis inner city families.

Grace runs the mile race for the Kingdom House fundraiser

One of the Kingdom House projects was a baby shower by Girl Scouts that collected gifts for newborns. "I helped take presents down to Kingdom House and our car was totally full of toys," she said.

Another Kingdom House project was Eat N Run. That combined breakfast and a variety of runs and walks for charity. "I ran in the kids' l-mile run. There were also 5K and 10K walks," she said.

The Girl Scouts have been a big part of Grace's life since she because a Daisy as a kindergartener. She's had three years in Brownies and Junior Scouts. She becomes a Cadet this year.

The Girl Scouts sponsor an April Showers drive to collect toiletries for charity. The drive involves passing out plastic bags to neighbors and coming back to collect their donations. Grace said this is similar to the Boy Scouts' food drive.

Grace cuts her hair and donates to Locks of Love

Grace and her younger sister, 9-year-old Hope, also have donated their hair to Locks of Love. That involves people cutting their hair and donating it for use in wigs for cancer patients.

"I have a routine of getting my hair cut once a year so Hope and I donated when the hair got long enough," she said. People donate when the cut-off portion to be at least 11 inches long. She said she has a little more hair growing to do before she can donate again.

As a 5th grader at Kennard CJA School, Grace served on the Student Council. But, she didn't run for the council in her first year at McKinley.

"My Megsss math club at McKinley met at the same time as the Student Council so I couldn't run," she said.

Both Kennard and McKinley schools are for gifted students. Grace chose the math club because it provided advanced math instruction. Math is her favorite subject.

Grace has been active in both music and plays at both her church and her schools.

"I got to play Yum Yum in the Mikado at school. That was a good part and the play was lots of fun," she said. "Then, my grandmother took me to a professional showing of the Mikado at the Opera Theater of St. Louis. That was even more fun."