Becca R., 15*
Layton, UT
Started a free space camp for girls
*Becca was 14 when she entered the contest.

These kids volunteered their time to help others and in return got some priceless prizes:
Tons of smiles, good feelings and pats on the back. (You can get 'em, too—check out the All-Stars challenge in our November issue to find out how.) More than 6,000 of you entered the 2006 challenge! Our All-Stars winners taught science to girls, wrote books to comfort foster children and helped the hungry and homeless. Read on to see how they did it.

After going to space camp, Becca told the young girls she babysits that she wanted to be an astronaut—and they told her that was a "boy's job." To help change their minds, she held a space camp in her backyard just for girls, and it was a huge hit! That was the beginning of AstroTots, a free science camp for girls ages 4 to 10. Becca has taught a camp in India, and she hopes to expand AstroTots to all 50 states. (Check out astrotots.org!)

How did you first end up at space camp?

Becca: When I was little, my older brother Jason would show me the stars and tell me stories about the constellations, and I really loved it. I thought that if more girls got that experience when they were younger, they would love it, too.

Becca: We teach girls science through crafts, because that way we make science fun. When we make the Martian landscape out of red clay, we teach them that it's the iron in the soil that makes the ground red.

Becca: Interacting with the girls and watching them learn. There's a funny story—this girl and her sister had attended AstroTots, and their little brother saw a male astronaut on TV, and he told his mom that he thought that only girls could be astronauts. So it really shows that I'm changing the way some people think.