Six young ladies, ages 10 and 11, from Girl Scout Troop 608 recently earned their Bronze award and helped the community in the process.
The Bronze award is the first step toward reaching the Gold award, the equivalent of an Eagle Scout, and requires 20 hours of volunteer time. The scouts had to come up with a service project that leaves a legacy in their community.
“They collected donations of dog food, cat food and other supplies like blankets and treats for the Johnson County Animal Shelter,” said scout mom Allison Crouch. “They aren’t allowed to collect monetary donations, so it required them to think outside of the box. They set up a couple of drop-off points and spent an evening at the Farmer’s Market spreading the word.”
It wasn’t as easy as collecting food and supplies and dropping them off. The troop also had to come up with a way to leave a legacy that would last far longer than the food.
“They worked with the animal shelter to learn about the different things they needed, and unfortunately, the shelter typically has more animals than foster families. So, the girls came up with the idea to create a backdrop for digital marketing,” Crouch said.
They researched how to make a backdrop, came up with a fun tie-dye design, and constructed it to sit in the shelter’s office.
When an adoptable animal arrives, volunteers at the shelter can snap a photo of the animal and post it on social media, hopefully drawing attention to their new four-legged addition, thanks to the colorful backdrop the girls made.
It was the perfect project for such a philanthropic troop.
“The animal shelter is near and dear to their heart. This troop wants to use their cookie funds to buy things for the shelter at Christmas time. They’ve done diaper drives and donated to Riley,” Crouch said. “This project was just on a grander scale.”
Of course, the young ladies learned a lot along the way as well.
Working as a team, they relied on each other’s strengths to create solutions to challenges. They learned to work with others through the nonprofit, learned that giving feels better than receiving, and they’ll enter middle school closer than ever.
“The six girls have become closer over the last year, and now they know they have somebody that will be there in middle school: someone to lean on. It’s about helping the community but also about learning how to help each other,” Crouch said.
It’s the best part of the Girl Scouts organization, according to Crouch — the growth young ladies experience through challenges like the Bronze award, and eventually, the Gold, but also through selling cookies and other projects throughout the year.
“It’s against Girl Scout regulations to raise money for another organization, so they have to use other means to get donations. The cookie sales pay for all of their activities throughout the year, so they’re also learning to manage time, money and interpersonal relationships,” Crouch said. “They learn how to respond when they get turned down and to work hard to get the benefits of the program too.”
The six Bronze award winners from Troop 608 have completed their project and have officially moved forward to the cadet level for this fall, but it’s never too late to join.
Girls entering kindergarten and first grade are eligible for the Daisy program and can continue through high school. This August, representatives will be at each of the elementary schools to share more information during orientation evenings, and sign-ups will be ongoing for several weeks.
Visit girlscoutsindiana.org to learn more about the program.
