She knows no boundaries

Nadia Bon is fresh off her sophomore year at Bishop Kearney and she is hungry for more.

The 16-year-old Bensonhurst resident just won first place in a Stop World Hunger essay contest and is preparing to compete in a horseback riding competition this summer. Bon was born with cerebral palsy and has boundless energy and enthusiasm, and is refreshingly optimistic.

Bon entered the essay contest titled, “How Does My School Stop World Hunger,” based on her experiences volunteering at local food pantry, Reaching Out Community Services.

“I needed to do community service due to a graduation requirement of 90 hours,” Bon explained, adding that she came in first place in the high school category. Over 200 students from all over the five boroughs and Long Island participated.

“What better way to participate in your own neighborhood? It’s amazing how many people need it,” Bon said. “I wrote how it was inspiring and amazing to see that without graduation requirements, I may have never gone into the food pantry at all.”

Bon has also participated in the Walk Against Hunger, is a probationary member of the National Honor Society and is an Achilles athlete. “It’s an adapted program in Central Park for disabled athletes,” she explained, adding that she walked in the Hopes and Possibilities Walk on Sunday, June 24, in which athletes walked 2.5 miles together.

Bon loves to read and write. Her favorite authors include Charles Dickens, Thomas Hardy, Jane Austen and Emily Bronte. “I also like history. For my birthday, I went to London to learn about English monarchs,” she said. “The government there inspired ours. We saw the Blitz Museum, the subways and where they hid from the Nazis. It was very cool.

“It’s amazing to see historically how these things survive,” she went on. “My house is 80 years old and I like to look in the basement to see if I can find any old stuff.”

This bookworm also is into rock-climbing. She started out three weeks ago at Brooklyn Boulder, located in Gowanus. “It’s fun, I like the challenge,” she said.

Bon will spend most of her summer at her family’s beach house in Belmar, where she will take in some sun, learn embroidery and participate in a horseback riding competition. “I have been riding since I was three,” she said.