KNOX — Taryn Hanley of Knox, a senior at Berne-Knox-Westerlo, is completing her Girl Scout Gold Award.

The daughter of Tami and Dan Hanley, she has been a Girl Scout since she was in first grade.

Her capstone project helped BKW elementary-school students in two ways — celebrating kids who otherwise might not have parties and providing books for classrooms.

She put together “birthday bags” for all students in prekindergarten through fifth grade at BKW that are a part of the backpack program so that they were able to have a birthday party with family or friends. The bags had all the fixings for a party, from cake mix and icing to decorations and goody bags with toys and treats.

The second part of her project was literacy based.  She gathered 475 donated books from family members, community members, and friends for the schools classrooms and its library. Extra copies will be donated to the Berne Public Library.

She targeted 49 book titles that dealt with the social issues of poverty, hunger, and homelessness. Hanley recorded herself reading some of these titles onto a YouTube channel and that link will be shared with teachers through the school librarian.

Her overall goal was to help teach children at a young age about the social issues of poverty, hunger, and homelessness in an effort to help build more compassion toward others in their class who may not have as much as they do.