Wake Forest teen volunteer is role model at Boys & Girls Club

"It's just like my second home, my family. It's my stability in life," Dysard said.

The Boys & Girls Club named her the 2012 Youth of the Year for Wake County, the highest honor that the group gives.

In the past year, Dysard has volunteered 275 hours while maintaining a 3.3 grade-point average.

"I believe everyone should volunteer," she said. "Not just for yourself, to have that good feeling, but just to know that you're making an impact on someone else's life."

Dysard has a unique ability to connection with children, whether over a game of bumper pool or helping them with homework, said Jessica Bullock, director of the Boys & Girl Club  in Wake Forest. The approximately 200 children who come to the club know her by name.

"She's very important to the club, because she gives the kids someone to look up to," Bullock said. "They want to be Kyndall one day. They want to be like her, and it gives them a positive role model."

Dysard said she's the one who gains from volunteering at the club.

"You learn new things every day, with different kids and different outlooks on everybody's life," she said.

In addition to her volunteer work, she is also a part-time staff member, president of leadership club and a member of several youth advisory councils.

The award from Boys & Girls Club included a $1,000 college scholarship, and she'll find out in April if she is selected as North Carolina's Youth of the Year.

Dysard said she would like to go to college and get a job in public relations, ideally for the nation Boys & Girls Club organization.

"All the opportunities I've gained are countless and amazing," she said.