Girl Scout Troop #2403 of Birch Lane School recently won a national award in Colgate-Palmolive's 31st annual search for the country's best community service projects by young Americans, "Operation: Can Read, Can Smile."

Troop #2403 was awarded high honors for their project. The nine and ten year old girls collected and donated over 700 books, and established a reading library at a local nursing home. The troop's project was chosen from among more than 2,000 entries nationwide, and was awarded fourth Place, which included a monetary award.

Each year, clubs and troops of six national organizations are invited to enter their best community service projects for consideration. The effort was launched by Colgate-Palmolive in 1973 to encourage community involvement among young people in the nation.

Troop Leader Jackie Stolfi explained, "Our troop has been visiting this nursing home bi-yearly for five years now, and on our last visit, a substantial number of our senior citizens asked us for books. We did not have any at that time, but we promised the seniors we would return with plenty of books for them, and we kept our word!"

Troop Leader Francesca Imbrogno added, "Reading provides hours of infinite pleasure. Our girls particularly enjoyed matching the interest of the seniors to the vast array of books available."

In addition to creating a library, Troop #2403 also handcrafted over 100 beautiful and unique bookmarks for the seniors to use. They spent over 200 hours making prizes to be used at Bingo nights. The girls also assisted at many Bingo sessions as the eyes and hands of the senior citizens who could not have otherwise participated.

The troop also organized and implemented a huge holiday festival for the seniors, which included handmade gifts, singing and visiting with those who were unable to leave their beds.