Michelle Vega has spent the past two years working her Gold Award Project, the highest award any Girl Scout can receive. She put in more than 200 hours in planning and executing her project.

Four years ago, Vega started a pet food drive following the Hurricane Katrina disaster. The response was so overwhelming that she continued the drive to help the Hobart Humane Society.

This year, Vega was hoping to have the help of all the Hobart Girl Scouts as part of her Gold Award Project but because of local flooding, she could not distribute the 400 grocery bags that Wiseway donated. The meeting had to be canceled because the roads were closed.

Vega, her boyfriend and mom went ahead with the food drive and canvassed local neighborhoods. They eventually filled her father's truck with pet food donations.

Because of the flooding, Vega had to adapt her original plan. She still had the remaining grocery bags to hand out to Brownies and other girls, so she asked them to bring the filled grocery bags to her celebration party at the Trinity Lutheran School gymnasium - the second half of her Gold Award Project.

At the party she arranged for someone from the Hobart Humane Society to talk to the girls about adopting pets, the Rev. Timothy Engel of Holy Cross Lutheran Church to play guitar for a sing-along, and Lake County Sheriff Roy Dominguez to visit. Vega paid all expenses with the money she earned from her Girl Scout Cookie sales.

- THE TIMES