Girl Scout Silver Awards 2016
2016 Silver Award
JANE DES MARAIS, MARGOT HEARNE, & TAYLOR KRAUS
TROOP 579
Children on the Green
We worked with a daycare center in Morristown that serves disadvantaged kids and families. Children on the Green is connected to Homeless Solutions and Jersey Battered Women’s Shelter. To raise donations, we organized parties for Chatham Girl Scouts where admission was diapers, toys, etc. We also provided special attention for the kids by coming in to read and do crafts with them. In order to continuously give the kids positive role models and extra attention, we set up a volunteer program through the Key Club at the high school.
2016 Silver Award
MIKAYLA MEYLER & HAILEY COATES
TROOP 579
Be Allergen Free Project
We focused our project on spreading awareness about food allergies and helping those who suffer from them. To do so, we hosted a Halloween Food Allergy Friendly Trunk or Treat, promoted the FARE Teal Pumpkin Project throughout Chatham, and created an awareness information packet and allergy friendly recipe book for the Interfaith Food Pantry clients.
2016 Silver Award
EMILY LAMB & JULIA RASKIN
TROOP 579
Summer of STEM
Our project focused on a three day STEM program for elementary schoolers over the summer at the Library of the Chatham’s. We explored volcanos and earth science, the science behind bath bombs and cosmetics, and robotics and experiments. We raised awareness for our project at the Chatham Farmers Market. In doing this project we hoped to interest more kids, especially girls, to become interested in STEM early in their lives.
2016 Silver Award
ZOE HOROWITZ & MELINA PANAGAKOS
TROOP 579
Helping Our Veterans
Veterans occupy a very important place in our community and we wanted to address an issue that was directly affecting them. Many veterans in our area are members of the VFW Post 6259, which is located in Berkeley Heights. It is a nice facility that the veterans use to gather and socialize with on another. We noticed that outdoor patio space was not really a suitable location for the veterans to sit outside and enjoy each other’s company. The project involved cleaning the area up, laying downs a new patio surface of gravel, building and staining picnic tables, stringing lights, and installing a fire pit. We hope that the veterans will be able to use this outdoor space to their enjoyment for many years to come. The girls loved doing the strenuous tasks and working with such amazing people. Thank the veterans really made our year extra special.
2016 Silver Award
GRACE HOFHEINZ
TROOP 571
Work Family Homework Help
The Homework Helper program was conducted at the Southern Boulevard School through the work Family aftercare program. I supported the school by providing homework help to children ages Kindergarten through 3rd grade while they were in aftercare. I created the program with the help of the Coordinator at SBS and supported the program on Tuesdays. I was an invaluable resource to the aides of the aftercare program, as I addressed the on-on-one needs of the students that wanted to complete their homework before going home.
2016 Silver Award
AMANDA GALLOP & SOFIA DORREGO
TROOP 571
Library of the Chathams Homework Helpers
The Homework Helper program was established at the Library of the Chatham’s to address the community issue of after school homework support for elementary kids in Kindergarten through 5th grade. We established the program with the Children’s Room at the library. We created a homework room with dedicated space and supplies and a weekly sign media. The program ran on Thursday from 3 -5 pm. We provided support to various aged children all throughout the school year and even provided support to a bi-lingual child learning to read English.
2016 Silver Award
EMILY BROWN, LIVVY MACCHIA & CAROLINE KIERNAN
TROOP 579
Cerebral Palsy/Horizon School Support and Awareness
Our project focused on helping a local school for children with Cerebral Palsy, the Horizon School. After meeting with school administrators, teachers, and the children, we saw one challenge they faced was with reading. Since many children with CP have a hard time reading and using their hands, they have boxes full of items that the teachers use to tell them stories so they can feel and touch things in the stories. However, for the children that are trying to read there are no books to go along with these boxes of items. We decided to create a mini library of books to go with the story boxes for the children that wanted to try to read. We created books that had large print, simple pictures and words, and were a size that would be easy for them to handle.
We also saw that the school had a constant shortage of paper products. We rans a supply drive which provided the school with three SUV’s full of paper products desperately needed by the school. During the supply drive we were also able to spread awareness in the community about the Horizon School and cerebral palsy, a disease that doesn’t get as much attention as other diseases.
2016 Silver Award
JACKIE AHRENS & MEGHAN FLOOD
TROOP 1982
SOS Beautification Project
SOS (Strengthen Our Sisters) is a domestic violence shelter in northern NJ where many women and children live. The garden and grass areas outside the shelter were really run down and overgrown. Whe helped improve the shelter by planting some flowers and vegetables/herbs, and made it into a memorial garden in honor of a young mother at the shelter who had recently passed away unexpectedly.
2016 Silver Award
EMMA DOWLING & ZOE IORIZZO
TROOP 1982
Lending Library
We created a portable library system where visitors at the Soup Kitchen can read books while they are visiting. We chose to do this project because we wanted to make an impact for those at the soup kitchen. Books are a gateway to one’s imagination and can be used when someone needs to pass time. Moreover, people may not be able to own books, thereby not experiencing the wonder this is literature. Visitors have the option of borrowing the book and returning it or keeping the book and replacing it with one of their own.
2016 Silver Award
LANEY ANDREYCHUK & CAROLINE CREE
TROOP 1982
Comforts of Home
We received our silver award for a project called “Comforts of Home”. The project worked hand in hand with a local nursing home, where we created seasonal wreaths to hang on doors to brighten up the common spaces. The residents have given us rave reviews and have been so grateful.