A surprise presentation at Arbor View High School brought 17-year-old Aiyana Castro a national honor for service. FOX5 Las Vegas reported on September 25, 2026, that Wreaths Across America had given Castro its national LEARN Award. Creating a Giving Culture LV’s own website identifies Castro as the 2026 recipient of the Wreaths Across America LEARN Award. FOX5 reports that Wreaths Across America staff surprised her during the school day at Arbor View. Neither source gives the date of the presentation, so it should not be assigned one.
FOX5 reports that organization leaders presented the award, and the selection committee said Castro stood out for her commitment to remembering service and sacrifice. The LEARN Award recognizes a young person who understands the organization’s mission and puts it into practice through community service.
The work behind the recognition began years earlier at a veterans cemetery. Castro was placing flags there with her family when a World War II veteran thanked her for coming. She said the exchange helped her understand that military service affects families as well as service members. “Behind every uniform is not only a service member, but a family who sacrificed alongside them,” she told FOX5.
Since then, Castro has volunteered with veterans, military families, and her community. FOX5 describes her work as an effort to help young people understand the cost of the freedoms they enjoy. The station’s report does not credit the award to one particular project; it presents the honor in the context of her continuing service.
Her organization says its annual wreath project aims to place a wreath on every grave at the Southern Nevada Veterans Memorial Cemetery. The site describes it as a chance for families and young volunteers to remember veterans by name.
Castro has also built opportunities for younger volunteers through Creating a Giving Culture LV, the youth-led nonprofit she founded. In a Vegas PBS interview published in April 2026, Castro said the idea began when she was 11. She had tried to volunteer with nonprofits but was told she was too young because many required volunteers to be at least 13. So she started her own initiatives.
The group’s Community Giving Carnival brought young volunteers together to assemble care packages. Castro told PBS that around 200 youth volunteers came to the event. The packages included snacks and drinks as well as toiletries: fruit snacks, chips, trail mix, juice boxes, granola bars, water, toothbrushes, toothpaste, shampoo, conditioner, body wash, and lotion. She said she wanted K–12 students to serve their communities and learn leadership and compassion by doing so.
The interview also showed how the effort grew through youth participation. Board member Emylia Camacho said she saw the group’s flyer on Instagram, contacted Castro, and asked to join the board. It is one example of the path Castro was trying to create: a young person who wanted to help could find a role and take part in organizing service.
The organization’s website describes other projects, including care packs and seasonal gifts for children in hospice and their siblings. Those are the group’s descriptions of its work, separate from FOX5’s reporting on the award and PBS’s interview about its beginnings. They show that its service projects extend beyond the carnival and are meant to include families navigating difficult circumstances.
The three accounts trace a clear path without making the award stand for more than the sources say. FOX5 documents the surprise presentation and Castro’s years of volunteering. Vegas PBS captures her explanation of why she created a place for younger people to participate and what one event involved. The organization’s site describes its own ongoing projects. Together, they show how one early experience at a cemetery became part of a broader effort to make service accessible to young volunteers.
The LEARN Award marks recognition for that work. Castro’s story also points to practical ways young people can contribute: joining a family to place flags, assembling supplies with peers, or helping create a project where other children can volunteer. Her organization gives those volunteers a place to begin, while the award brings wider attention to the service she has encouraged in Las Vegas.
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