Nicole Donant is not your typical 14 year old girl. What started out as a Girl Scout community service project to conduct a book drive with a goal of collecting 1,000 books turned into something bigger, something much bigger, a brand new library for a neighboring community.

Nicole collected, cleaned, repaired and sorted over 6,000 books and the town of Mineral City, Ohio was grateful. But it had been over 30 years since the town had a library and it would cost $350,000 to build a new one. Undaunted, Nicole kept collecting books for her project knowing that someday they would have a home.

In 2005, the NBC-TV Show “Three Wishes” hosted by Amy Grant came to town and Nicole and her father Steve went to the first casting call so Nicole could tell them about her wish for a new library for Mineral City. Thanks to Nicole’s perseverance and determination, her wish was granted. The ribbon was cut to open a new library which the grateful city named in her honor.

The new facility has over 10,000 books, eight computers with public internet access and a very special place called “Nicole’s Corner” where she reads stories to children on a weekly basis. Nicole’s selfless wish and efforts has given endless resources to enrich the lives of an entire community for many years to come.

What makes her story even more special is that Nicole has Cerebral Palsy, but rather than making a wish for herself, she put others first, which makes her truly deserving of this special award in the eyes of the judges.