What started as a Girl Scout Gold Award project for McIntosh High student Lauren Ladouceur has turned into a successful nonprofit organization that teaches young girls in Haiti the valuable skill of sewing, enabling them to provide for their families, and giving them hope for better futures.

Ladouceur’s nonprofit organization, LOVE2Haiti (www.love2haiti.com), caught the attention of Porsche, which honored her with their 2015 Porsche Driving Force Youth Award.

LOVE2Haiti teaches young girls attending the Hebron Academy how to provide for themselves and their families by sewing handbags. The academy is one of only three schools in Haiti that provides food, shelter, medical, and spiritual enrichment to approximately 385 children and the surrounding community.

LOVE2Haiti collects and provides sewing supplies and native-language instruction, as well as secures markets in the United States to sell the handbags. Profits are equally distributed among the girls, the Hebron Academy, and the purchase of materials.