GIRL SCOUT TROOP 1991

Although traditionally Girl Scouts (and Boy Scouts) are notorious for providing community service and meeting all types of community needs, our Girl Scout Troop has done an exceptional job of giving their time and talents to a wide variety of organizations in our community this year. These 13 and 14-year-old girls have been in Girl Scouts for a number of years, some of them for nine years. Every year they have been active in community service, some of it required for advancements and patches through the Girl Scout program.

This has been an exceptional year for our girls. This past year their volunteer hours have gone well beyond the normal Girl Scout requirements. As a group of six girls, our girls have accumulated over 1300 hours of community service from January through November 2004.

These hours involved assisting Boy Scout groups, younger Girl Scout groups, Boy Scout and Girl Scout camps and badges/belt loops, assisting with Special Olympics, assisting with church activities (such as vacation bible school), school volunteer (such as PTO, athletic boasters, high school band), assisting with Senior Citizens, assisting with community organizations such as the Optimist Club and the American Red Cross.

Two of the girls completed their Silver Award this year. For their project, they each made twenty no-sew fleece blankets for Senior Citizens who reside at a local nursing facility.

One of the interesting events that the girls participated in this year was the “Make A Difference Day” on October 23rd. For this national day of volunteerism, the girls “pampered” seniors’ citizens in the Alzheimer unit. The girls gave hand massages, painted fingernails, applied lipstick and rouge and curled residents’ hair. After the residents were pampered, the girls put corsages and boutonnieres on the seniors and they held a dance featuring music that was popular during the seniors’ younger years.

Their altruism continues into 2005, when in conjunction with the National Youth Service Day in April 2005, they are organizing a health awareness fair for our community. They have applied for seven grants to fund this activity and are contacting local health related business about participation.

As you can see, this group of girls has gone above and beyond to help many facets of our community and I feel that they are very deserving of the “Daily Points of Light Award”.