Newport News Girl Scout Gives Back to the Military for Silver Award Project

Jazzlyn, a Newport News Girl Scout, has earned the Silver Award, the second highest honor a girl can earn in Girl Scouting. Jazzlyn has been a Girl Scout for four years.

Jazzlyn understands firsthand the sacrifices made by members of the military and their family. Both of her parents are veterans and her mother was deployed to Iraq to care for injured soldiers. For her Silver Award project, Jazzlyn wanted to give back to the military community and decided to create community book exchanges at USO Welcome Center at the Norfolk International Airport and local veterans’ medical centers.

“Reading helps me escape reality and go on an adventure,” Jazzlyn said. “My hope is that it will help the military members do the same so they don’t have to think about bad stuff going on in the world.”

To complete her project, Jazzlyn collected books, CDs and movies that soldiers can borrow for any amount of time to enjoy while they’re traveling or at their destination and return to the book exchange when they come back.

Through the work that she did with her Silver Award project, Jazzlyn also became a Wounded Warriors Student Ambassador. In this role, Jazzlyn helps to raise awareness about the work that the Wounded Warriors Project does to help injured service members recover and readjust.

The Girl Scout Silver Award is the highest award earned by Girl Scouts in middle school. To earn the award, Girl Scouts have to identify an issue in the community and carry out a Take Action Project to address the matter through leadership work.