South Brunswick Girl Scouts Earn Awards

The year 2011 was a busy one for the Girl Scouts of South Brunswick. Many girls worked hard and earned either their Bronze, Silver or Gold Award. The Bronze Award is earned by Junior Girl Scouts in 4th and 5th grade. They spend at least 20 hours of hard work to earn this.

The Silver Award is earned by Cadette Girl Scouts who are in grades 6-8. The scouts spend at least 50 hours of hard work to earn this award.

The Gold Award – the highest award a Girl Scouts is earned by Scouts in grades 9-12.  At least 80 hours of hard work is spent by the scouts to earn this award.  

The Bronze Award was earned by:

Troop 80602 earned the Bronze award by first learning to sew and then they sewed, sewed and sewed pillows and donated them to Seniors at local assisted living and nursing home facilities, children's health clinics and the U.S. Military.

Junior Troop 8-1101, earned their Bronze Award in 2011. The girls wanted to help the organization, SAVE, which is an independent non-profit animal shelter dedicated to protecting the health and welfare of homeless companion animals.

Our project had three parts:

• Supply Drive- we collected items for the shelter including dog and cat food, treats, pet toys, cleaning supplies, and old towels and sheets.  We collected items at our elementary school, and weekly the girls removed the items from the bin and sorted and stored them, before donating them to the shelter.
• Dog and Cat toys- we made dog and cat toys from old socks, and t-shirts, and brought them to the shelter and hand delivered the toys to the animals.
• Landscaping- we painted large rocks and stenciled on animal related words and pictures.  We brought the rocks to the shelter and landscaped the front of the building to brighten up the entrance.

The girls who participated in the project were; Gina C., Maya E.,  Nina M, Rashmi R., Sharon R., Lexi R., Gianna S., Lauren T., and Jordyn Y.

The Silver Award was earned by:

Marissa B., a Juliette Girl Scout (a Juliette is an independent Girl Scout not connected with a troop) – Created a Book Nook – Library and Activity Center at Franklin Care. She got donations of both adult and children’s books and games to stock the Book Nook. She bought bookcases and built them, to create the book nook. She had scouts and residents paint shapes to decorate the walls. Now when children come to visit they have something fun to do.

Elizabeth Dahl and Rachel Szachara of Troop 1740 earned their Silver Awards with a project called "Literacy in South Brunswick."  The girls tutored younger students for several weeks in Language Arts, organized a book drive, and recorded ten favorite student books onto CD for a special education class at Constable Elementary School.  

With the proceeds from a community car wash, Rachel and Elizabeth purchased several heavy-duty CD players for the class so the students could enjoy the books, which they would otherwise been unable to read by themselves.  The kids loved the books, CD's, and CD players, and the teacher even invited Elizabeth and Rachel to come back to visit.

Amy Caruso earned her Silver Award with Troop 80766.  Her projects name was "Recharge the Planet" She helped educate people about recycling.

Vittoria F., a Juliette, earned her Silver Award with a Project call “Honoring Our Fallen Veterans." Veterans in at the Franklin Memorial Park are recognized each May by the Veterans of Foreign War Post 9111. 

The VFW members walk the cemetery and place American flags at each Veteran's grave.  The headstones are not clearly marked to define the Veterans.  Some Veterans may not get honored if a headstone is not read or clearly seen.

Vittoria created a map of where the Veterans headstones are and it allows the VFW to order enough American flags for all the Veterans to be honored. This project helps both the Veterans of Foreign War Post 9111 and the Franklin Memorial Park in making sure the Veterans are honored. 

She spent two months walking and surveying the cemetery using graph paper turning it into an Excel spreadsheet showing where the Veterans headstones are. On May 28, 2011, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, VFW members and her friends and family came together for the cemetery flagging. On June 14, 2011, she presented the VFW members laminated copies of the maps so they can be used from year to year.

The Gold Award – The highest Girl Scout Award was earned by many Scouts this year.

Seven out of seven from Ambassador Troop 81800 earned their Gold Award. Each girl developed and carried out their own distinct project.

The Gold Award Project of Emily S. was called States with Traits.
She painted a map of the 50 states on the black top of Constable Elementary School to encourage a creative, fun, and active way of learning about the U.S. 

Sophie H. titled her project ArtSENSations. She conducted a Sensory Art project for children with Autism, teaching participants about the senses, while enabling them to improve their sensory integration skills. Working with textures, sound, smell, visual stimuli and flavors, the participants used all five senses, while completing enjoyable, fun art projects. 

Elizabeth B's project was Caps for Cancer. Liz taught people of all ages (Girl Scout brownies and juniors, high school students and senior citizens) how to knit, and together they made over 70 hats for cancer patients.

Amanda B's project was Back to School for South Brunswick  Amanda collected backpacks and back to school supplies to give to the less fortunate families of South Brunswick.  She donated over 40 filled backpacks.

Rosemary C's project was South Brunswick Food Pantry Victory Garden.  Rosie created a vegetable garden to address the issue of hunger in her community.  All produce grown in the garden over a four-month period, was donated to the South Brunswick food pantry for distribution to needy families.

Grace T's project was Art with a Heart.  Grace organized and ran a charity craft program for adults with disabilities.  She ran weekly events over a 3 month period.  She also created craft booklets for the participants.

Nirupama V's project was a Game Room for Children at the Homefront Neighborhood Center. Nirupama created a library and game room for the neighborhood community center. The center serves children who have unstable home environments.

Senior Girl Scout Brianna Taylor started with a dream, a dream where children could be themselves without peer pressure. Working through the Girl Scouts, she created the Gold Award Project: Picture Yourself.

The main goal of the project was to teach children that it's okay to be yourself, and to add drawing skills to their many ways of expressing themselves. She began by taking part in various summer camps, leaving the blossoms of self expression in children's minds wherever she went.

Brianna went to Princeton University Camps, Princeton YMCA, Woodlot Park, and the South Brunswick YMCA. With a total of 83 hours for the project, Brianna has completed her Gold Award and has enlightened the minds of many children.

Brianna painted a bench in the image of Self Expression, and donated it to the Butterfly Garden planted by Girl Scouts, in Turning Basin Park. She hopes that the community will enjoy a comfortable place to sit among the butterflies

All the Scouts in troop 81531 have earned their Gold award:
Madhuri (Mona) G., Karola E., Muzdalifa A., Inayah L., Taliah K., Nouran S., Zainab P.

This troop also had the honor of sending one their scouts to represent our Council at the 2011 Girl Scout USA National Convention in Texas. Only 10 girls were selected to represent our council which covers one-third of the state of New Jersey

Two girls from Troop 81844 completed their gold award.

Preethi K. focused on her passion - dance as a way to stay healthy. Preethi conducted five weeks of dance lessons for four groups.  

Groups were

1.  Kids 6 to 12.

2.  Teenagers.

3.  Girl Scouts.

4.  Adults.

All her students then got a chance to perform on the stage at the South Brunswick High School Auditorium.  There were also dance performances by Qing Yang Dance Studio and American Ballet Academy.  She also stressed that staying healthy requires eating nutritious food. So she collected more than $900 and 96 cans of food items for the food pantry.

Kanika J. took an initiative to spread awareness about the impact of E-waste in our community. It is a NJ law now that we should properly recycle E-waste (old computers, DVD players, TV etc). She participated in many community events, partnered with local merchants and started a web site (http://recycle-ewaste.webs.com) and a Youtube video to inform everyone of this very important message.

Courtney H. of Troop 81782, a sophomore at SBHS, completed over 80 hours of community service for her gold award project, "Healthy Habits," educating over 350 local children on the importance of exercise and nutrition using the new USDA Food plate and fun interactive activities which she created.

Courtney partnered with local summer camps at the South Brunswick and Princeton YMCA, Woodlot Park and Princeton University. Carol Salas, M.S., R.D. an area Registered Dietitian and Nutrition Consultant, served as her project advisor with supplies. Funding was provided by Mary Glynn of Kick it Up Fitness and Princeton Marketing and Communications. 

Many South Brunswick Girl Scouts are hard at work in 2012 on their Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards. Projects ranging from Recycling, The Food Bank and many others that help the community. There are troops running events for scouts like our annual Friendship Fair, as well as events for younger girls. 

--Cindy Beim