At the age of 11, Sophie Bernstein asked her parents to start a garden. Her parents, Navy Reserves Capt. Brad Bernstein and Moira Bernstein, initially dismissed the request. Perhaps they thought the work of planting, weeding and harvesting would ultimately fall on them. Or maybe they envisioned a sad overgrown mess, due to neglect.
But Sophie persisted, and they gave in. Now 17 years old, Sophie’s green thumb grew into a remarkable bounty, not only for her family but also for hundreds of others in her community.
“When I explained to my parents that I would oversee all the garden tasks and that I wanted to donate the vegetables I grew to a food bank, they agreed to let me grow my first raised vegetable garden bed in 2012. For the past four years, I have expanded my project to 22 gardens at low-income preschools, daycares and emergency shelters for children in the metropolitan St. Louis region.”
For that extraordinary effort, she’s been chosen to receive Operation Homefront’s 2017 Military Child of the Year® Award for Innovation, sponsored by Booz Allen Hamilton.
So far, Sophie has donated more than 13,570 pounds of produce to local food banks and to families in need. Sophie’s innovation has raised awareness of childhood hunger in the community, and it has increased the volume of fresh and healthy produce available at food banks and at child care facilities.
Sophie believes that everyone can make an impact and a difference in improving the world at any age, at any time. Her favorite quote from Anne Frank, “How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world,” reminds her that Anne was only a teenager when she wrote a book that would have a huge impact on the world.
“Too often we underestimate the impact a simple gesture can have in another,” said Sophie.
Sophie’s project has been a hands-on learning lab for children, as she has led 225 science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) botany and plant science workshops for young children throughout the year. In the process, students at low-income preschools are engaged in building, planting and maintaining produce gardens.
But she didn’t stop there. Sophie and her siblings started a website called www.volunteennation.org/ to engage youth throughout the nation in service. Using social media, they try to activate and mobilize youth in service. So far, they have recruited 785 teen volunteers from area high schools to help with the gardens and with the plant science workshops.
Sophie exemplifies the passion and resilience seen in so many military kids. Her family’s legacy of military service not only includes her dad, but also her sister serves in the Navy and both of her grandfathers were active in the Air Force and Army.
As part of the Award for Innovation, Sophie will receive a mentorship by Booz Allen Hamilton employees to scale or to advance her gardening and service projects. We can’t wait to see where Sophie’s passion to help others will take her next!
Operation Homefront would like to thank presenting sponsor, United Technologies, for their support of Military Child of the Year®. Support from companies like United Technologies and all of our MCOY sponsors is invaluable in helping us showing appreciation for the contributions our military families make to our communities.
