Marian Catholic High School senior Alyssa Porambo has earned the highest award in Girl Scouting — the Girl Scout Gold Award.

For her Gold Award project, Porambo organized a drive at Marian to “stuff a truck” with nonperishable food items for area pantries.

Thanks to her efforts, the drive will continue at Marian and its partner school, St. Jerome Regional School in Hometown.

“It’s an honor to have achieved the Gold Award. I have a feeling of accomplishment as the Gold Award is something that is hard to achieve,” said Porambo, 17, of Tamaqua. “But I just enjoy being able to help others and see how a small thing can make a big difference.”

Porambo said that she and her adviser and teacher, Mary Matunis, came up with the idea to help local food banks and address poverty in the area.

“She and I then began constructing ways possible to do the outreach and then decided that a large collection was a good idea,” Porambo said.

Porambo partnered with Marian’s Catholic Relief Services (CRS) Club, as well as St. Jerome school and her church, St. Joseph in Summit Hill.

“We collected at Marian throughout the school year, in addition to the partner school and the church, over 4,000 nonperishable items,” said Porambo, who is president of the CRS club.

Marian and St. Jerome continue collecting food for area food pantries.

Porambo has helped those in need before. For her Silver Award, she collected more than 2,000 pairs of shoes to donate to the Soles4Souls organization. It, too, is an effort that continues at Marian.

According to Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania, “The impact of her Gold Award project will be felt long into the future, and Porambo has shown the next generation of girls what they are capable of accomplishing.”

Porambo has been a member of West Penn Girl Scout Troop 31208 since first grade.

Following high school graduation, Porambo plans to pursue a degree in speech therapy.

She is the daughter of Matt and Andrea Porambo.