Redmond’s Berkleigh Rathbone is the recipient of the prestigious Gold Award, the highest honor in Girl Scouts. Although her original motivation to join Girl Scouts may have been to obtain the organization’s wristband being handed out in her elementary school, she is now a Lifetime Girl Scout, having been a part of Redmond’s Troop 41981 for the past nine years.

Girl Scouts “is the longest thing (that) I’ve ever stuck with… (and) it has shaped me in a way that I can do stuff that I didn’t think I would be able to do — Gold Award is a good example,” Rathbone expressed as she pulled out her book, with the original sketches, onto the table. A Gold Award is presented to less than 6 percent of all Girl Scouts.

For her Gold Award project, Rathbone wrote and published a children’s book titled “Miss Karlein’s Pumpkin Patch” in July of 2014 that teaches the basics of gardening, composting and the spirit of donating.

“Coming up with the idea for my Gold Award project was the hardest part… It was insanely difficult,” explained Rathbone, a recent Eastlake High School graduate. She credits her mother for the story idea about Karlein and her pumpkin patch. “So (my mom) gave me the story and I tweaked it with my project adviser who happened to take a class on children’s books.”

Living in Redmond with a “pretty good-sized back yard (growing) pumpkins, zucchinis, apple trees and grapevines that are on steroids” has certainly fostered her passion for gardening. Ever since she was born, her mom has loved to garden and her dad has loved to go outside, Rathbone added.

“Miss Karlein’s Pumpkin Patch” first introduces the main character, Karlein, a pumpkin-carving enthusiast who wants to grow the biggest pumpkin. With her mother, she buys a pumpkin and plants its seeds and tosses the leftover seeds into the compost bin. However, to her disappointment, the pumpkins grow to be average-sized. Then, one day, Karlein spots a vine coming out of the compost bin, and when she climbs up a hill and looks over the top, she is astonished to find a full-grown pumpkin patch. She enters the biggest pumpkin to the fair, wins all the blue ribbons and realizes what a marvelous idea it is to donate the extra pumpkins to the food banks for other kids to carve or eat.

At the end of the book, there is a call-to-action, which urges the readers to donate extra food, whether it be from their garden or pantry, to local food banks.

“It combines the idea of gardening… (with the) aspect of donating and volunteer work,” Rathbone explained. She has also created an email address for her readers to directly reach Miss Karlein with questions.

“I have Karlein set as an older character (for) positive peer pressure (and) adult influence,” Rathbone added.

Her ultimate goal is to “influence enthusiasm in gardening while also enlightening about the details of volunteer work,” Rathbone proudly revealed. From the initial project proposal to the Gold Award reception, the entire process spanned around 10 months.

So far, Rathbone has donated copies of her book to Emily Dickinson Elementary School in Redmond, a church in Bellevue, the San Francisco Public Library, a library in Oregon and a school in Hawaii. Rathbone hopes that “by reaching out to the entire West Coast… it will help kids to realize what power gardening could have” and familiarize themselves with the idea that they can donate the extra food to local food banks.

“Miss Karlein’s Pumpkin Patch” is not sold at bookstores, however, because the hardcover books are “really expensive to print (and) I would feel bad making money from my Gold Award project,” Rathbone said.

As for the public’s response to her book, Rathbone shared that her first-grade teacher at Emily Dickinson and another elementary school teacher have contacted her with congratulations, and “a teacher and a librarian (have) agreed to read my story each year, so I’ll hear some response about that.”

When asked whether she is planning to write more books, Rathbone responded, “I don’t know… (but) I definitely learned enough to publish more books in the future.”

Rathbone will be attending the University of Washington this coming fall, and is considering pursuing a major in psychology.

“Anything you want to do is possible, as long as you break it up into manageable chunks… If you have a dream, just go for it,” she said.

Rachel Lee is a senior at The Overlake School in Redmond.