Slatington Woman's Club Girl of the Month for October is Casey Gavalla.

Sports have always been a big part of Casey's life. She has been involved with soccer since she was 6 and played on several club teams throughout the years, including NLYAA, Northampton soccer club, and also several fundraiser/tournament teams. Decorating floats for the annual Halloween parade each year will always be one of her happy memories from soccer.Another sport that is extremely important to her is field hockey. She has been a part of field hockey for six years and has just recently earned captain of her varsity team. Over the past summer, she volunteered as a helper for the middle school players and that helped her enjoy the sport even more.School activities are extremely important to her. She has been involved in SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), Spanish Club, several committees, and she managed the boy's high school basketball team. This past month, her field hockey team adopted an "Angel" from the program Angel 34 as an opportunity to help a family with a member battling cancer."I take great pride in being involved with that and loved helping to make any slight difference possible," says Casey.Over the years in school, she has received the American Citizenship Award, The Coach's Award from East Stroudsburg University's field hockey coaches in regards to leadership, enthusiasm, and positive attitude. She was selected for the People to People Ambassadors program as a representative of our country to travel to Spain, France, and Italy.Grades are something she takes very seriously and she has been on Principal's list and High Honor Roll throughout high school.Casey has lived in Slatington for 14 years with her parents, Maria and George Gavalla and her sister, Carly. Her mother has been a mammographer at St. Lukes Hospital for 27 years. Her father is the director of operations at Lehigh Valley Hospital and has been there for 10 years. Her sister is in her sophomore year in the nursing program at Bloomsburg.She says she is close with her family and enjoys spending holidays together, watching football games, cooking, enjoying Italian food, and their yearly summer vacations to the beach. She loves walking her dog, going for long walks with her sister, and baby-sitting her neighbors.Her future plans include attending college to study early childhood education to fulfill a lifelong dream of becoming a kindergarten teacher. She plans to study Spanish with hopes to travel to Spain again and learn more about their culture.