Memorial Girl Scout beautifies free clinic to earn Gold Award

Girl Scout Claire Panebianco is a recipient of the Gold Award for her work beautifying the Casa El Buen Samaritano health clinic.

Claire Panebianco, a Girl Scout and 2012 graduate of St. Agnes Academy, earned the Gold Award by working to beautify Casa El Buen Samaritano, a free clinic in Houston.

The clinic, located at 14060 Dublin St., provides health care to low-income and uninsured families in southwest Houston.

The Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can receive and less than five percent of girls who join achieve the recognition, according to a press release from the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council.

"I learned that I am able to spark community involvement by spreading the word and not being afraid to ask for volunteers or for people in give their time and get involved," stated Panebianco in the press release. "I chose this project because my goal was to focus on an area that often got ignored and was in desperate need of help and improvement," she continued.

A member of Girl Scouts for 12 years, Panebianco will attend college in the fall to study elementary education and child development. She hopes to go to graduate school to study education administration.

For more information, visit www.gssjc.org.