Gold Award Earned by Encouraging Children to Read

Cameron believes a child’s early school experiences help shape their attitude toward learning, which impacts their desire to pursue an education. As a result, her Gold Award project focused on rebuilding a reading center for a first grade class at Oakman Elementary School in Walker County after it was devastated by a tornado. Cameron developed a plan to reach her goal by soliciting help from the community to donate new reading materials and supplies, and collected almost 1,000 books in a local book drive. When she delivered many of the new items to the reading center, she said, “The smiles and excitement at the school spoke more than words. This project taught me about my strengths and weaknesses as a leader and as a person.”

Cameron is the daughter of Dale and Rita of Hoover and is a senior at Hoover High School.