— Hayley Vickroy has an appetite for helping others and does so through the Girls Scouts and her church and school.

She also adores her great-grandfather, Irvin Gindlesperger, of Richland Township, a longtime volunteer at the Park Avenue Food Pantry in Moxham.

Last fall, the 11-year-old Girl Scout found a way to help others and honor her great-grandfather at the same time.

That was by conducting a project that raised 130 pounds of food for the Park Avenue Food Pantry.

Hayley is using the project to help her earn her Bronze Award, the highest award a Junior Scout can achieve.

Her fellow Scouts were glad to help with the project as was her church, First Presbyterian Church in downtown Johnstown.

“I did this to honor my great-grandfather,” she said about her great-grandfather’s dedication to the food pantry for 30 years. “I admire him for what he did all these years to help other people all year and around the holidays.”

Although her 101-year-old great-grandfather recently had to give up his duties at the food pantry, he passed on the importance of helping at the facility to others.

“The work he started is being carried on by others in the family,” she said, adding that her great-grandfather’s children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren help at the food pantry.

“He has made a lasting impression on people,” Hayley said.

The Moxham girl said her great-grandfather told her he was proud of her for collecting the food.

Hayley, a member of Troop 40979, sponsored by Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Hornerstown, garnered help for her project by talking about it at her church and at a Girl Scout meeting and distributing fliers in her neighborhood.

She said her parents, Ray and Wendy Vickroy, and her younger brother, Jack, also helped.

“Everybody was a huge help,” said the fifth-grade pupil at East Side Elementary School.

Hayley helps with community-service projects through her troop, helps with charitable projects at her church and helps to raise funds for charities at school.

It’s important to help others, she said.

“It shows that you care about your community and the less fortunate,” she said.

For her efforts, Hayley is the Person of the Week.

Ann McKinney, director of the Park Avenue Food Pantry, said Hayley’s project meant much to the food pantry.

Hayley collected mainly breakfast items, McKinney said.

“She believes that breakfast is the most important meal of the day and, because we serve a lot of children, wanted them to have a good breakfast,” McKinney said.

Hayley did a fantastic job with the project and it was nice of Hayley to honor her great-grandfather at the same time, she said.

Jackie Reynolds, Troop 40979 leader, said Hayley got all the girls from all divisions of the troop involved in the project.

“It’s great,” she about Hayley’s project. “She is not just helping one person. She is helping a lot of families.”

Reynolds said members of the troop are always helping others.

Recently Samantha Rager, a Cadet Scout, conducted a project to collect personal-hygiene items for the Christian Home in Johnstown, she said.

The Park Avenue Food Pantry assists between 100 and 150 people each month. It serves Moxham, Hornerstown, Lorain, lower part of Ferndale, Riverside, Benscreek and Belmont Heights.

Tribune-Democrat editors select a Person of the Week from nominations made by readers. To nominate someone, call 532-5058, 24 hours a day.