Making a Difference – Rita Earns Dolly Madison Award

What did you do?

I earned the Dolly Madison Level Award in American Heritage Girls.

To earn this award, I had to fulfill several requirements, including planning, organizing, and implementing a service project that benefits an organization.

My project was an Underwear and Socks Drive benefiting the St. Francis Mission on the Rosebud Lakota Reservation in South Dakota.

The children and adults at the Mission lack the most basic of necessities, and with the cold winter months approaching, I felt called to do something to help them out.

I conducted the parish-wide collection during the month of October 2018. In just one month, I gathered over 429 packages of socks and underwear donations for the Mission.

What organization recognized the achievement?

American Heritage Girls and the St. Francis Mission.

How did homeschooling help you achieve your goal?

The flexibility of homeschooling allowed me the time necessary to research various charitable organizations, communicate with the parish ministries, design bulletin and poster advertisements, and run the Underwear and Socks drive.

Homeschooling also taught me responsibility and how to be independent, both skills I used in leading and organizing the collection.

What are your interests?

My interests are reading, writing, sketching, volunteering, camping, hiking, and the culinary arts.

What are you inspired to do with your life?

My goal in life is to make a difference for the better in the world and bring people to know and love Christ.

If it is God’s will, I hope to major in New Evangelization and Catechesis so that I may have the knowledge to better do so.

What are your favorite subjects and why?

My favorite subjects this senior year are Apologetics, English and Economics.

I love Apologetics because through it, I am learning how to prove the reasonableness of Catholicism and am prepared to defend my Faith whenever the opportunity arises.

I have always enjoyed English because I like reading classical literature and improving my essay writing. Seton’s Economics Online course is very fascinating because it presents the social science in the light of the Catholic Faith.

The photo was taken with the donations collected in the Underwear and Sock Drive.