Local teen earns ‘Young Heroes’ award
STEVENS POINT – Rachel Ley, 17, of Stevens Point has been named a national winner of the 2014 Gloria Barron Prize for Young Heroes. Each year, the Barron Prize celebrates 25 inspiring, public-spirited young people from all across America who have made a significant positive difference to people and our planet. The top 15 winners each receive a $5,000 cash award to support their service work or higher education.
Rachel founded Literacy for Little Ones to support families in reading to their children from the time they are born. She assembles book packages containing a new children’s book and information on early literacy and distributes them to new parents in hospitals. In the past five years, she and a team of 700 youths have assembled and distributed 8,400 book packages to seven hospitals in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Nicaragua. Each book package, wrapped in cellophane and tied with a ribbon, includes a personalized letter explaining the benefits of reading to newborns on a daily basis and tips for doing so effectively.
Rachel’s project was born of her own love of reading for which she credits her mother, who put her on a “10-books-a-day diet” from birth until kindergarten. With an initial grant of $500, Rachel purchased books and supplies, contacted her local hospital, gathered a few friends and distributed 550 book packages that first year. Since then, she has convinced Kohl’s, Target and two publishing companies to donate books to her cause. She also has inspired her peers to raise funds through popcorn and doughnut sales, and has received additional grants to buy books and supplies. On the 11th anniversary of Sept. 11, Rachel contacted teachers, coaches and advisers at several local schools and organized nine groups of students in assembling 1,100 book packages. She recently expanded her project to include a hospital in Managua, Nicaragua. She found and ordered Spanish books for babies, translated her materials for parents from English to Spanish, and rallied her peers to assemble more than 1,950 book packages for the Nicaraguan hospital in just one month. “I’ve come to see that volunteerism is really about realizing how fortunate I am,” Rachel says. “I’m just trying to give back some of what others have given me.”
The Barron Prize was founded in 2001 by author T.A. Barron and was named for his mother, Gloria Barron. Each year’s 25 Barron Prize honorees are as diverse as their service projects. They are female and male, urban and rural, and from many races and backgrounds. Half of the honorees have focused on helping their communities and fellow human beings; half have focused on protecting the environment.
“Nothing is more inspiring than stories about heroic people who have truly made a difference to the world,” Barron says. “And we need our heroes today more than ever. Not celebrities, but heroes — people whose character can inspire us all. That is the purpose of the Gloria Barron Prize: to shine the spotlight on these amazing young people so that their stories will inspire others.”