Sudbury Girl Scouts Up Their Community Service Game

From GSEM Sudbury Girl Scouts:

Troop 65254: Leader Shirley Huettig

Read with a Girl Scout: An event to promote literacy, where our troop paired up with 4-8 year old kids at the Goodnow Library to read and practice literacy skills. Book donations were accepted and taken to Reader to Reader in Amherst. This organization distributes books to towns and schools in Massachusetts that don't have public libraries.

Participants included:

• Elizabeth Huettig
• Abby Pope
• Bree Tuxbury
• Aviel Stutman
• Ava McMahon
• Rena Wang

Troop 85071: Leaders Colleen Flannery-Schwarz and Christine Boyd

Kindness Rocks: The girls created the Kindness Rocks and left them all over town with inspiring messages. They also created a curriculum and script that was shared with younger troops to spread the message of kindness.

Participants included:

• Emma Schwarz
• Lauren Boyd
• Alison Lewis
• Carly Robinson

Troop 75225: Leaders Lana Bernas, Szwarc and Sarah Davis

School Bus Safety Education: Participants include Caroline Cervini, Anne-Sophie Ouellet, Elise Arrighini, Isabella Cruz, Lucy Davis, Kaleig Neuhauser, Kaleigh Gothie and Talia Szwarc.

Troop 66247: Leader Kristin Fisher

Lending Libraries for Preschoolers: The girls approached the Head Start program in Framingham to discuss ways they could help low-income children prepare for elementary school. They agreed to create four lending libraries that would allow preschoolers to borrow a different book each night to read with their families.

Participants include:

• Hannah Arrighini
• Caroline Davis
• Emily Fisher
• Catherine Johnson
• Ashley Manocchia

Caroline Davis

For her Gold Award project, Caroline created a nutrition program for Open Table, a food pantry and community dinner in Concord and Maynard, MA. Her goal was to encourage Open Table guests to use the fresh produce donated by Gaining Ground, a farm in Concord, and to provide them with nutrition information that they may not otherwise have access to. She also organized for a dietician to speak to the guests about nutrition, and answer any questions they had.

Georgia Neale

People with Crohn’s Disease, Ulcerative Colitis and other Inflammatory Bowel Diseases still have to take medication to manage their disease, but doctors and researchers are finding that foods can hurt or heal people with IBD.

"I wanted to start this project with the IBD community, at the Crohn’s & Colitis Walk in Boston, to see if providing a 'IBD-Friendly Refreshment Tent' at the walk would benefit the patients and their families who are participants on walk day," said Neale.

The primary beneficiaries of the tent were the patients at the walk, but ultimately everyone appreciated the healthy food choices we had at our tent and many people remarked it as a wonderful addition to the event this year.

Abbey Sykes

"I worked with an organization called National Education for Assistance Dog Services (NEADS) in Princeton, Massachusetts on my Gold Award project. NEADS trains service dogs to provide independence to people who are disabled. My project addressed the need of these people for freedom, physical autonomy and relief from social isolation. The main focus of my project was to educate the community on the proper etiquette when interacting with a service dog team (the dog and handler). I also built a pergola next on the NEADS campus to provide shade for puppies so that they can spend more time outside," said Sykes.

Francoise Hultin

"I created the Pediatric Intervention Club at Lincoln-Sudbury Regional High School, with students from all grades. Members from the club participated in the annual Verrill Farm Festival, working to educate the community about coping with the stress of hospitalization. The club created activity pamphlets to be distributed to Emerson Hospital and pediatrician offices. The activities promote healthy coping strategies, providing distraction, promoting communication and relaxation methods. I designed a multi-age, interactive, germ-free activity in the ER to help distract patients and families. A digital photo frame displays a cropped image, followed by the full image, creating a guessing game for people to identify the cropped image before the full image is revealed. My Gold Award project helps families practice healthy coping skills to relax their minds and bodies when they experience stressful situations," said Hultin.

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