Teen takes active volunteer role

When Kristin Dollar was 8 or 9, she remembers walking the streets of her neighborhood in North Augusta to collect food for the Columbia County-based It's Spooky to Be Hungry food drive to benefit Golden Harvest Food Bank.

This year, the 16-year-old Augusta Preparatory Day School junior took an even more active role in the food drive, coordinating collections for 13 neighborhoods in North Augusta while serving as coordinator of her own neighborhood.

"Spooky is a really big volunteer project for me," said Kristin, the daughter of Jim and Linda Dollar, of North Augusta. "You get to see how it all adds up."

Frances Redmond, a coordinator liaison for Aiken and Richmond counties with this year's Spooky drive, said that, to her knowledge, Kristin is the youngest coordinator with the project.

"She didn't need any supervising," said Redmond, who attends church with the Dollar family at Grace United Methodist in North Augusta. "She just did a superlative job. When she knew what her responsibilities were with this, she got right on it."

In addition to her Spooky volunteer efforts, Kristin also is on the Augusta Chapter of the American Red Cross' Youth Board and has worked with Habitat for Humanity through her church. She also has volunteered at area nursing homes with Grace United Methodist.

"Since I am a junior, it's really easy to get caught up in other stuff and not do the volunteer work, but it's really a good thing to help other people who go without a meal," said Kristin, who also is an avid swimmer with the Augusta Swim League and at Augusta Prep. "It's a really good feeling knowing I'm helping others."

In all, the neighborhoods where Kristin served as coordinator collected 2,178 pounds of food and $1,372.

"It was a great experience," she said, adding that she plans to continue in her volunteer efforts with the food drive.

"She's such an example to others," Redmond said. "She didn't let her youth and inexperience stop her from taking on this challenge. It's such a testimony to her parents. That's where the seed was planted - as a little girl pulling the wagon around her neighborhood.

"What she started, she finished," Redmond said. "She was very responsible and is an exemplary young girl."