Gold Award Spotlight: “Veterans Awareness Day”

Girl Scout Ambassador Rachel recently earned the Gold Award, the highest honor and achievement in Girl Scouting, by completing a service project she titled, “Veterans Awareness Day.” Rachel hosted a public event at VFW Post 4411 in Franklin, VA with the mission of connecting the community with resources that they can utilize to assist friends and loved ones as they overcome the effects of traumas related to military service.

She said, “My granddad is a veteran and I know many veterans are suffering due to the traumatic effects of war. Veterans and their families and friends may be too proud, angry, or hurt to seek help. Sometimes they just do not know where to go for help.”

 

Rachel invited guest speakers from the community to acknowledge and share information about mental health crises affecting veterans such as PTSD, substance abuse, and suicidal thoughts. Volunteers from VFW Post 4411 and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, also in Franklin, helped make the event a success. She also designed and produced handouts, magnets, and business cards with hotline and support group information for guests to take home and share with others after the event.

Congratulations, Rachel!

Achievements and Successes Celebrated at GSCCC's June 2022 Board Meeting

It was a time to celebrate achievements and successes at GSCCC’s June Board meeting. Members from Troop 93 who won the 2022 Cookie Program’s “Show Your Cookie Flair” contest were invited to help start the meeting by leading the Board in the Girl Scout Promise and Law. They received CEO patches from GSCCC CEO Tracy Keller and stayed for a special presentation to Girl Scout Ambassador Sarah Sass, a girl member who serves on the Board. 

 Sarah was recognized with the 2022 Buck Harris Award, an award named in honor of a former executive director of Greater Tidewater Girl Scouts, a council that merged with Heritage Girl Scouts to form Colonial Coast. Buck loved the outdoors and the all the benefits girls reap from camping. Each year, the award is presented to a girl who loves the outdoors and uses her skills and talents to help others. Nominations are usually submitted by a girl’s troop peers. The recognition comes with the gift of a full week at camp! Since joining Girl Scouts in kindergarten, Sarah has lived her life by the Girl Scout Promise and Law. She has been active in her troop, her service unit, and is a member of the council’s Board of Directors where she also participates on the Board’s Property Committee. Sarah loves camping and the outdoors, has spent many summers as a camper and, in recent years, as a Program Aid. She graduated this year as the salutatorian from her class and is heading to Virginia Tech in the fall! Sarah’s parents were on hand for the presentation.

 

Special guests also included Girl Scout alum Camille Birdsong who recently graduated from Hampton University’s Scripps Howard School of Journalism and Communications. She will be heading to New York soon to take a position with NBC as a news associate. Camille shared highlights of her senior capstone project which focused on the African American girl experience in Girl Scouting, titled: “A Deeper Look Into Why Black Girl Scouts Matter.” The project is on Camille’s website and includes video interviews with GSCCC VP of Membership Engagement Terri Washington and Girl Scout volunteer Toni Taylor. View it at https://www.camillebirdsong.com/capstone-project.

 

As part of the night’s pre-business meeting program, Girl Scout volunteer Christine Janison, an outdoor facilitator from Service Unit 375 in Norfolk, presented GSCCC Board Chair Marisa Porto with a check from the service unit. The funds will be used to create an ax-throwing range at Camp Apasus. Many thanks to Christine who also led an archery activity for Board members during the social hour!

Camille Birdsong

Christine Janison, outdoor facilitator from Service Unit 375 (green polo) leads board members in archery

Sarah Sass and parents

Troop 93

GSCCC Board Chair Marisa Porto, Christine Janison, and GSCCC CEO Tracy Keller

Veronica Armstrong Awarded with 2022 Maylea Brockington Beasley Love and Laughter Scholarship

 “On my honor I will try to serve God, my country and to help people at all times,” was recited by all during the opening of a special ceremony held at A Place for Girls on June 11. Family and friends gathered to celebrate Gold Award Girl Scout Veronica Armstrong’s achievements with a pinning by Girl Scout Council of Colonial Coast CEO Tracy Keller and a Gold Award charge reading by Gold Award Committee member Linda Linke. Included in the program, unbeknownst by Veronica, the Maylea Brockington Beasley Love and Laughter Scholarship was presented during the ceremony.

 

This was the second year the scholarship was awarded. Last year, the Maylea Brockington Beasley Love and Laughter Scholarship was presented to Girl Scout Ambassador Becca Rose in a private moment at her home. With much emotion, Shari Beasley, Maylea's mom, presented a scholarship certificate and congratulated Veronica, saying her Gold Award project had impressed her and was inspiring. The scholarship was created in 2021 in memory of Gold Award Girl Scout Maylea Beasley who lost her life on November 14, 2020 when she was a freshman at James Madison University. She was struck by a motorcyclist as she was crossing an intersection.

 

Maylea, who was active in Girl Scouts since joining in second grade, earned her Gold Award in 2018 for a project titled, “Education on Aviation.” She connected children to aviation history through a tour of books, based on grade levels, she organized for the Military Aviation Museum in Virginia Beach. Maylea loved all things in Girl Scouting and was known for her kindness.

 

Like Maylea, Veronica spent most of her girl years in Girl Scouting and enjoys the outdoors, traveling and helping in her community. Veronica has earned all of the highest awards in Girl Scouts: the Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards.  As part of her Gold Award project, “Self Love, Spread Love Curriculum,” she researched the stresses teens face, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. She found that they often lacked the skills and education need to cope in healthy ways. She took action with her project to address the most common causes of low self-esteem by creating a middle-school curriculum and hosted it online. She placed several 45-minute lesson plans for youth to use in a class setting or at home.

 

“I felt through this curriculum, teens could find ways to conquer some of their negative self-talk patterns, address toxic friendships, and change some of the unrealistic goals they set for themselves.”

 

You can find Veronica’s curriculum on the website she developed and hear her talk about her project in a video she created. https://youtu.be/0fqfhq02vIs

Find details on the Maylea Brockington Beasley Love and Laughter Scholarship, a scholarship open to GSCCC Gold Award Girl Scouts, on the Southeastern Virginia Community Foundation website. https://bit.ly/3mGk0IM

Bronze Award Spotlight: "Little Free Library for St. Luke's United Methodist Church"

Girl Scout Juniors Addison, Aubrey, Ava G., Ava K., Brooke, Charlotte, Isabella, Jocelyn and Maeve of Troop 1325 of SU 150 in Yorktown recently earned their Bronze Award by completing a project they titled, "Little Free Library for St. Luke's United Methodist Church." To get started, the Girl Scouts worked together to plan and organize a community book drive and collected hundreds of donated books to get the library off to an amazing beginning! Once the books were collected, the Girl Scouts worked together to install the library at St. Luke's United Methodist Church. The girls decided on this location because of the church's support of past troop activities and meeting, the on-site preschool, as well as family foot traffic from the church's food pantry. They knew this location would help them make a great impact!

Troop leader Sheena Moberg said, "These amazing Girl Scouts learned how they can make a difference to so many in the community. They used many skills from the proposal process, project implementation, the book drive, and community outreach. They are proud to have seen this project go from the planning stages to seeing the finished project and the impact it can have on the community. Little Free Libraries are a long-lasting, sustainable way to provide books to kids, families and neighbors for years to come."

This project will be on going as the troop plans to responsible for the upkeep and maintenance of the Little Free Library.

Congratulations, Troop 1325!