What makes Emily Knafl remarkable is not that she can juggle her time to accommodate a million people and activities (though she probably can).

Her passion and her caring heart are what set her apart, those who know her say. Those are also the qualities that earned her recognition as a finalist for AnnArbor.com's Young Citizen of the Year Award.

Emily volunteers in the Alzheimer’s unit at the Chelsea Retirement Center. But just volunteering wasn't enough for Emily. Noticing that the residents there liked pets, she started bringing in animals, such as baby chicks and guinea pigs, and saw what a tremendous difference being with the animals made for the residents.

"It gets them talking about their childhood experiences with their animals,” she said.

Her family has trained dogs before, and she was considering getting a puppy, so it just made sense to try to get a dog certified as a therapy dog. From there, Emily developed Caring Canines, consisting of teams of volunteers who visit patients with therapy animals. She hopes to expand the reach of the group and visit other hospices and retirement centers.

“It can change a whole day around,” she said.

Emily began volunteering at the Chelsea Retirement Center in the Alzheimer’s ward when she was only 12 years old. She says she was inspired to get involved there because her great-grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease. One day when Emily was visiting, a resident was very upset and confused as to why she was at the retirement community. She kept repeating that she wanted to go home. But after Emily came in with her dog, the woman's demeanor changed.

“She was happy again. She began talking about her dogs she had when she was a little girl,” Emily said.

Emily, who sports a black belt in Tae Kwon Do, hopes to enter the medical field when she gets out of high school. She still has another year left in high school, but during her senior year she will go through the pharmacy technician program at Washtenaw Community College.

Emily was recently awarded the Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouting for creating Caring Canines, said Debbie Clickner, Emily’s Girl Scout leader. “She’s very loyal and dedicated to what she believes in,” Clickner said. “She’s going to go a long way in life.”