Newton girl wins national award for community service

A central Iowa girl has been chosen as one of America’s top youth volunteers. 12-year-old Anne Wignall of Newton is among ten students chosen from 23-thousand nationwide who were nominated by their schools for the Prudential Spirit of Community Award. Program executive director Scott Peterson says Wignall founded Care Bags Foundation, a non-profit group that gives bags of donated books, toys and toiletries to abused, displaced and disadvantaged children. Peterson says Anne fills between 30 and 50 of the bags every month. So far, she’s distributed more than 600 of the care bags through 13 agencies that serve needy children in 50 Iowa towns. She’s also recruited other people to start similar programs. Peterson says Wignall does a “fantastic job in meeting a little-recognized but important need.”Wignall receives five thousand dollars, a gold medallion and a crystal trophy for her school. She’ll also have 25-thousand dollars in toys, clothing and other juvenile products donated in her name to needy children in Iowa by Kids in Distressed Situations, Inc. The award was presented earlier this afternoon in Washington D-C. Wignall’s 20-year-old sister, Allison, won the same award two years ago for an AIDS fundraiser. Allison attends Iowa State University. The Wignalls’ mother is a child abuse prevention educator.