Gold Award Spotlight: Soda Bottle Greenhouse

Gabriella, a Chesapeake Girl Scout, has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.

For her project, Gabriella constructed a greenhouse made entirely of recycled soda bottles at Yorktown Elementary School. Gabriella also made laminated teaching aids for students to use in the greenhouse to help them learn the parts and lifecycle of plants. Teachers at the school will be incorporating the greenhouse and teaching aids into their STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) curriculum for students to have the opportunity to learn in creative, hands-on ways outside of the classroom.

“A teacher at Yorktown Elementary was looking for someone to build a greenhouse at the school to enhance their STEM program,” Gabriella said. “Now, with this outdoor learning space, students will be able to grow plants all year round.”

After completing the greenhouse, Gabriella created a video about how to create a soda bottle greenhouse that she placed online for anyone to use as a guide. She also gave a presentation at the Virginia Living Museum to talk to members of the community about building a soda bottle greenhouse.

The Gold Award requires girls to identify an issue in the community and carry out a Take Action project to address the matter through leadership work. Nationwide, less than six percent of eligible Girl Scouts earn the Gold Award, which adds Gabriella to an elite group of female leaders across the country with the honor. In 2016, Girl Scouts are celebrating 100 years of girls changing the world during the centennial year of the Girl Scout Gold Award.

Erase the Waste

Sorenna, a Williamsburg Girl Scout, has earned the Silver Award, the second highest honor a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.

Sorenna, who is a student at Lois S. Hornsby Middle School, noticed that a large amount of recyclables was being placed in trash bins at her school. For her Silver Award project, Sorenna implemented a recycling program at her school, which included a recycling center in the cafeteria, recycling bins for each classroom and monitored recycling at school events, including dances and plays. To promote the new program, which she titled Erase the Waste, Sorenna hosted a recycling poster contest and displayed the winning entry in the school.

Sorenna was inspired to make an impact on the environment when she worked on completing the Girl Scout Breathe Journey and learned about pollution and what can be done to prevent it. She wanted to find a place in her community where there was an opportunity to reduce the amount of trash going to the landfill.

“At Hornsby, a little more than 900 kids were disposing recyclables the wrong way,” Sorenna said. “I wanted to change that one recyclable at a time.”

Sorenna also started a Recycling Club at her school, and the members will be responsible for monitoring the recycling program, collecting recyclables from classrooms, making posters to promote recycling and making sure that recyclables are collected at special events held at the school.

“My project impacted our community by lowering the amount of recyclables being put in local landfills and also impacted my school by helping it be more environmentally friendly,” Sorenna said. “It also helped students and staff have a different thought process each time they throw away a recyclable.”

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.

The winning entry of Sorenna's poster contest

Building a Stronger Bond

Last winter when Girl Scout Troop 365 in Moyock visited the Currituck House, an assisted living facility, they realized visiting the center and helping residents wasn’t the only service the Currituck House needed. While putting a smile on residents’ faces during a holiday craft activity, they noticed two children who were there visiting their grandmother. They were just itching to get into the action. Looking around, members of Troop 365 realized there wasn’t much in the activity room to entertain children visiting, so they began brainstorming ideas to change that.

The troop decided that they would like to build some shelves that they could fill with games, books and DVDs that would not only keep children occupied during visits, but also facilitate more enjoyable interactions across generations. After gaining permission to complete their project from the activities director at the Currituck House, the girls sprang into action. They visited local hardware stores, learning about wood and materials they would need to build shelves. They took multiple trips to the Currituck House to measure the space, keeping in mind that they would need to leave plenty of room for wheelchairs and walkers to get around in the activity room. The troop members ended up designing and building three low, rectangular shelves.

“Talented parents and family members brought their tools to show the girls how to measure, cut, sand, prime and paint,” Brittany Orosco, the leader of Troop 365, said. “The shelves took the girls and the help of their parents every weekend from April until June. Every meeting was a lesson in effort and doing a job well.”

To collect items to stock the shelves, the member of Troop 365 placed boxes in their schools and asked people to donate gently used books, games, puzzles and movies.

On June 16, after the final clear coat on the shelves had dried, the troop moved the shelves from Orosco’s garage to the activity room at the Currituck House. The girls brought in all of the donations they had collected and organized everything to neatly fill the shelves.

“Through the project, the girls learned the value of hard work, networking and community service,” Orosco said.

For their project, the members of Troop 365 earned the Bronze Award, which is the third highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.

Back to School, Back to Troop

By Shirley Bergstrom, guest blogger

Shirley with her daughters, Marcelina and Gabriella

I have two daughters. One is a first year Junior and the other is a first year Cadette, and they have both been a Girl Scout since kindergarten. Girl Scouts has been such a great experience for them and maybe even more so for me because I have been able to help not just my girls, but a whole troop of girls, grow and expand their horizons. Some of my daughters' most memorable experiences wouldn’t have happened if they weren't Girl Scouts... camping, friendships, learning about conserving resources, serving their local community and who could forget about igniting their entrepreneurship fire!

We’ve only been in Girl Scouts for a few years but here are a few tidbits for getting back into the swing of things with Girl Scouts and school I’ve learned along the way…

• Renew your membership! It will make things easier for your troop leader to get ready for Fall product sales.

• Stay in touch with your troop’s co-leader(s). Ask for a schedule of meetings for the year, at least up to Christmas. My daughters are in the same troop with girls from Daisies to Cadettes. I keep in touch with each level’s co-leader.

• Get Girl Scout bag to carry your daughter’s Journey books and Guides to Girl Scouting.

• For newly bridged girls, have the vest ready to go with all your patches and troop numbers and patches earned during the summer. The GSCCC shop staff is very knowledgeable with handling all our vest/sash and uniform needs. And, if you’re new and can’t remember your troop number, the shop staff can look it up for you!

• I could go on and on about ideas for organizing everything, but having your Girl Scout meetings and events scheduled into your calendar (paper or electronic) with location is important! I like to color code my calendars to distinguish work, personal, Girl Scout and family events.

• Sign up as a troop helper or driver! This gives co-leaders extra helping hands to make meetings and events run more smoothly… it takes a village!

• Read all publications and emails from Council. I'm always sure to keep up with the monthly enews, Volunteer Connection and the GSCCC blog. 

Gold Award Spotlight: Carolyn F. Bernard Stadium Renewal Project

Juliette, a Chesapeake Girl Scout, has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.

To earn the Gold Award, Juliette completed a renewal project at the Carolyn F. Bernard Stadium at Grassfield High School. The first part of her project was to create a memorial garden out front of the stadium honoring Anne McKim, the first athletic trainer at Grassfield High School, who passed away in 2010 at the young age of 29. Juliette assembled a team of volunteers to place native plants in the garden and arranged to have organizations at the school maintain the garden. She also chose a special stone that she had a memorial message engraved in to mark the garden as a place of remembrance.

The second part of Juliette’s project was founding and implementing a recycling program at the stadium. She installed signs about the recycling program throughout the stadium, and with the help of the Ecology Club at Grassfield High School, Juliette placed bins out for the football games. She conducted waste audits after the games to weigh the amount of trash and recycling to show the impact that her project is having on the environment. She collected approximately 20 percent of the waste as recycling and hopes to increase that number during the upcoming football season.

Juliette also worked with staff at Grassfield who knew Anne McKim to create a memorial book about her, and Juliette created guides about how to start a recycling program and about how to maintain the native plants in the garden at the school.

“I chose this project because I feel strongly about the need to recycle, and I felt it was important to remind future Grassfield students about the legacy of Anne McKim,” Juliette said.

The Gold Award requires girls to identify an issue in the community and carry out a Take Action project to address the matter through leadership work. Nationwide, less than six percent of eligible Girl Scouts earn the Gold Award, which adds Juliette to an elite group of female leaders across the country with the honor. In 2016, Girl Scouts are celebrating 100 years of girls changing the world during the centennial year of the Girl Scout Gold Award.

Brick Dedication at A Place for Girls

Nearly 30 guests gathered at A Place for Girls, the regional Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast program center and headquarters, on August 18 to dedicate a plot of commemorative bricks purchased by donors in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the building. The Buy a Brick campaign was launched in April, and nearly 60 thoughtful donors purchased bricks. Many of the bricks were purchased to honor volunteers, girl members and alumnae.

Kay Byrd, a volunteer from Ahoskie, was surprised with a brick of honor. When her daughter Melanie heard about the Buy a Brick campaign, she contacted her fellow troop members from years ago, and they purchased a brick in Kay's honor. Kay's daughters Melanie and Jennifer, along with six girls from Troop 1702, the troop Kay currently leads, told Kay to dress in her Girl Scout uniform and picked her up for a surprise trip to A Place for Girls for the brick dedication ceremony on Thursday.

The members of Girl Scout Troop 615 from Virginia Beach pooled their money to purchase a brick for their troop leader, Beth Goldblatt. The troop members, who are all in high school, told their leader that they purchased a brick for her at their bridging ceremony. They waited until the dedication ceremony to reveal the brick message, commemorating her as the "Best Troop Leader Ever."

Avery Berge, a member of the Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast board of directors, commemorated her family's Girl Scout history on a brick. She had the names of her grandmothers and great aunt, all three of whom were Girl Scouts, printed on a brick. Avery said that all three women were very influential on her upbringing and she thought that a brick in their honor would be a special way to recognize their impact on her.

The dedication ceremony was followed by a reception and social with the Council's Board of Directors.

If you were not able to purchase a brick for someone special this year, you'll have another chance next year. The Buy a Brick initiative will be an annual effort!

View a list of the 2016 brick donors here.

Sea Turtle Endangerment Awareness

Carsan, Virginia, Abby, Maggie, Ava

Five Williamsburg Girl Scouts from Troop 1270, Abigayle, Ava, Carsan, Margaret and Virginia, have earned the Girl Scout Bronze Award, the third highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting. For their project, Troop 1270 focused on raising awareness about sea turtle stranding and what can be done to protect sea turtles in our region. The girls were inspired to do this project after a trip to the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Facility.

To raise awareness about sea turtle, Troop 1270 planned and hosted an activity night for Daisies, Brownies and Juniors to teach them all about sea turtles. During the event, Troop 1270 shared what they’ve learned about sea turtles over the past year, including their visit to the Virginia Aquarium. They then read an informational book about sea turtles and led the girls at the event in an educational game about sea turtle eggs to show them how most eggs do not survive in the wild.

Next on the agenda, Troop 1270 led the girls through activity stations, which included decorating a sea turtle cupcake, making sea turtle crafts and creating a sea turtle mural that will be hung at the local library. During the event, Troop 1270 also had the girls sign a thank you card that they had created for the Virginia Aquarium Stranding Response Team volunteers.

The Girl Scout Bronze Award requires girls to make a difference in the community through leadership work. It is the top achievement earned by Girl Scout Juniors—fourth and fifth graders.