Gabrielle Leach throws during her perfect game for Robbinsville High's softball team against Trenton High last spring.

After Gabrielle Leach broke her left femur while playing softball during the fall of her freshman year at Robbinsville High School in 2007, she used a wheelchair to get around. She often caught people staring at her and that made her uncomfortable. “And then my mom told me that some people feel like that every day," Leach says now, two years later.

Thoughts of all the good fortune she has in life – a strong family, friendships, cheerleading and softball at Robbinsville, and, after her leg healed, good health – spurred Leach into some soul searching. What came out of it was a calling to help people in the community who are less fortunate. After completing her rehabilitation last year, Leach committed herself to community service and founded Second Hand Heroes, a charity which collects second-hand, but still-useful items and donates them to organizations in need. It started with the Alliance Homeless Shelter and grew from there. Among other organizations in which she has touched through service are the American Heart Association, Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, Make-A-Wish Foundation, HomeFront and Friends of Rachel.

“I kind of got inspired to put hard work into it,” says Leach, a 16-year-old junior. “My parents (Richard and Theresa Leach) have really been supportive. They’ve always done community service. I kind of took it to extremes.”

While leading collection drives at Robbinsville, Leach has discovered many people – from fellow students to teachers and school personnel – want to help push the various movements. Leading up to the holidays, Leach started a drive to help support homeless children with holiday gifts and to make cards for people who may not have a lot of family or friends in the area. After the holidays, she will collect used coats for those in need. And then there’s the Souper Bowl, tied in, of course, to the Super Bowl, where Leach will help collect soup and other canned goods for the needy.

“She is an absolute standout,” says Lindsay Richard, a Robbinsville guidance counselor who is Leach’s varsity cheerleading coach.

“She has influenced many of her peers to help out and make a difference in the lives of those less fortunate.”

Leach, who hopes to be an accounting major when she enters college in 2011, plays center field and occasionally pitches for the Ravens’ Colonial Valley Conference softball program. She can always make a pitch to others about the benefits of community service. “That anything is possible,” she says, “and with a little hard work you can start something and get amazing things done and help people.”

Follow Craig Haley's Mercer County sports columns on Twitter at http://twitter.com/CraigHaley.