Recently 14 North Reading Girl Scouts, (members from four
different Senior level troops) were recognized and awarded for their hard work
and diligence over the past two years in earning the prestigious Girl Scout
Silver Award. The Silver Award is the highest award a Cadette Girl Scout can
earn and puts these girls among an exceptional group of girls who have used
their knowledge and leadership skills to make a difference in the world.
These girls were asked to: Identify an issue they care
about; Build a team to work with or do it on their own; Explore a community
that they are part of - that could be school, church, town or another focus
area; Make a decision about how they want to help that community; and Develop a
take action project around that idea. They must put that plan into motion with
the expectation of putting at least 50 hours into the process. When they have
completed their project, they then reflect on their accomplishment, share their
story with others, and celebrate their achievement.
The girls were awarded at the NRGS Annual Fly Up and
Bridging Ceremony held at the International Family Church on Concord Street in
North Reading.
Anna Buscemi and Emily Nearing worked together as a team and
created a recipe website, http://nrfprecipebook.weebly.com/about.html,
including many of the food items they found on the shelves of the food pantry
as well as using fresh produce harvested from the vegetable gardens located at
the Town Hall. The vegetable beds, installed a few years ago by another Girl
Scout for her Gold Award project to benefit the food pantry families, are now
maintained by the North Reading Girl Scouts. In addition, the girls put
together a hard copy of the recipe book for those families without access to a
computer, as well as recipe cards to put on the shelf with those food products
that are not as popular to families. North Shore Printing generously copied and
donated 25 spiral bound copies of the cookbook and recipe cards for the girls
to give to the NR food pantry.
Claire Bailey coordinated an afternoon of music at the North
Reading Senior Center, in which the young vocalists and pianists shared their
talents with older residents. The performance was also filmed and put on DVD so
future visitors to the Senior Center could enjoy the performance.
Jessica Kelly held a book drive and book collection. She
then sorted through the books and used the donated books to rebuild the library
at the main building for the residents of the Peabody Court Housing Authority
in North Reading.
Julia Kushakji focused her project on the importance of
Reading, English and Literacy. She did research on the topic and then completed
two main activities to promote her project. Julia created a website surrounding
the topic and then built a bookshelf which she donated to the Hood Elementary
School.
Brooke Sponzo spread awareness about Barn Owls, a threatened
species in Massachusetts. She created a poster display and researched and built
an owl box. The box and poster were on display at Ipswich River Wildlife
Sanctuary, and then Brooke had the box installed at Felix Neck Wildlife
Sanctuary in Martha's Vineyard.
Carly Sponzo set up a “Letterbox” in the Ive’s Forest here
in North Reading. She prepared parts of the trail, hid the boxes containing
hand carved stamps of a Boy Scout symbol, a Girl Scout symbol, and a North
Reading Hornet symbol. Her Letterbox series information is "live" on
Atlasquest.com, and Carly has taken some of our North Reading Girl Scout troops
on hikes to find them!
Gillian Audier, Emily Humphreys and Nicole Shedd as a group
raised funds through various bake sales. They used the funds they raised to
purchase and plant two trees and various shrubs for a beautification project at
the Hood Elementary School.
Joanna Keaton raised funds through bake sales to purchase
craft stamps and cardstock. She then made greeting cards to be handed out at
Elder Services and also donated the materials necessary to make their own
cards.
Zoe Kennedy, Allyson Kirby and Olivia Esposito worked
together on their Silver Award, learning about the importance of honey bees in
a healthy ecosystem. Their research focused on the increasing problem of
"colony collapse disorder", an event that threatens our native honey
bees, which are the pollinators of most of our grown food supply. Without honey
bees to pollinate, crops can fail on a large scale. The girls planted
"pollination stations" which contained native wild flowers, at three
locations around North Reading. These stations provide food for the honey bees.
Additionally, they presented information to encourage homeowners to set aside
areas of their yards as honey bee safe zones, free from harmful yard
pesticides. They handed out wildflower seeds at North Reading's Apple Festival
in September which folks could plant this spring. The girls received donations
from local businesses including Wal-Mart, Boston Flower Market, Moynihan’s, and
Reading Lumber.
