By Jill Vejnoska

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

This Holiday Heroes profile is from 2009; nominate your hero for 2010.

The project was supposed to take up only a few hours of her time and help her qualify for a Girl Scouts badge.

Instead, Mary Claire Freese devoted two months last summer to completing a volunteer project that ended up improving the quality of many people’s lives.

Including her own.

“I learned there are lots of people in our community that are less fortunate, so if I don’t always get what I want, I should still be happy,” said Mary Claire, 11, of Duluth. “I also learned helping people is awesome!”

“Awesome” pretty much describes the Wesleyan School sixth-grader’s accomplishment in running book and clothing drives for two Gwinnett County nonprofits. She’d begun working on the community service portion of Scouting’s Bronze Award by playing bingo with senior citizens and performing yard chores. But she couldn’t stop thinking about the people she’d met at Rainbow Village during an earlier volunteer outing with her church. The Duluth organization provides long-term help to homeless families, particularly women and children fleeing domestic violence.

The children really stuck with her.

“They are just like us, but they seem a little sadder,” Mary Claire said passionately in the living room of the house she shares with her parents, Tom and Laura, and 17-year-old sister, Sarah. “Their faces light up when people come to visit.”

They also like to read, everything from “Dora the Explorer” books to more serious fare for teens. When Mary Claire contacted Rainbow Village with her idea to collect books, the response was enthusiastic.

“When books come, it’s a fabulous donation,” said Vally Sharpe, director of marketing for Rainbow Village.

Mary Claire was similarly familiar with Norcross Cooperative Ministry, which she’d visited on field trips. She knew a clothing and toy drive would help it provide emergency assistance to families.

She started creating a flier to distribute to neighbors and friends. Eventually, she abandoned that for a more direct approach.

“I decided to talk to them orally [so] they could ask questions like, ‘What do you need?’ and “Who is it for?’ ” Mary Claire explained. “I said, ‘We need anything you can give.’ ”

Apparently, she was quite convincing. She collected six bags of books for Rainbow Village and seven bags of items for NCM (including part of her own beloved Littlest Pet Shop toy collection).

She’s never gotten around to writing up the project for Girl Scouts; after awhile, Mary Claire explained, winning the Bronze Award began to fade in terms of importance.

“I didn’t need a badge to appreciate what I got to do.”