Gold Award Projects
Samantha Harrell - 2002
Samantha was the first girl in a Ridley Service Unit troop to earn her Gold Award in over 12 years.
Samantha Harrell had to deal with a lot of issues during her high school years, as did many of her peers. She understood how hard it was to identify some problems, such as depression, and get the help that was needed. She realized that parents, teachers, and peers needed to be educated about these problems, how to identify them, and what to do to get the troubled teen the help they needed.
So she identified which problems she wanted to address, researched each problem to help identify which teens needed help, and then added information on what kind of help was available for that particular issue.
She then solicited and compiled the actual real life stories of young men and women who had experienced the challenges covered in her book, and were willing to share their experiences to help others. She had this book published and sent copies to area high schools and the Girl Scouts and Boy Scouts.
“The Teenage Point Of View” deals with various tough issues that teens are facing today. The topics of this book are: racism, drug and alcohol abuse, self-mutilation, suicide, mental disorders, eating disorders, gay and lesbian teens, ADHD, learning disabilities, bullying, stress, physical and sexual abuse, sex, pregnancy and abortion, parent alcoholics, divorce, and grandparents raising grandchildren.
Congratulatons Sam!
Jennifer Bourne - 2005
Jennifer Bourne loves reading and her country, and wanted to share that love by collecting books and sending them overseas to our troops. She had heard that there wasn’t much to do there and a fresh supply of books was always welcome to combat boredom.
Once her volunteers got involved, her book drive took on a life of its own. Soon she had not only collected books for the soldiers, but children’s books, romances, and even a set of Boy Scout merit badge books.
Jen and her helpers got together to sort all the books to see what they had. They then had to identify who would receive the books that the soldiers couldn’t take.
The Ridley School District had put an article in the local newspaper asking for books to replenish the libraries in all of their schools. Jen’s volunteers took all the school age books and separated and boxed them according to age level. They then transported the books to the Ridley High School to be further distributed to all the schools in the district.
The children’s books of a religious nature went to a local church for their nursery school. The merit badge books went to a local Boy Scout troop, and the romances were divided between 2 nursing homes.
Congratulations Jen!
Tanya Brown - 2005
Tanya Brown wanted to do something for the youth in the development where she lives. They didn’t have a good place to play, so they hung out on street corners instead. She decided to refurbish the basketball court near her home, and recruited the area teens to help her. She figured that if they helped to rehab the court, they would help take care of it also.
The teens outlined the entire basketball court in duct tape so they would have nice, sharp lines when they were done. They then painted all the lines. The lines had been so worn down, that in some places they had disappeared.
They also free-hand painted, from memory, the hopscotch and other games that ran down alongside the court for the younger kids to use when the older kids weren’t on the court.
While they were checking out the court area, they discovered that the bottom bench on the bleachers was rotted through and unsafe, so they replaced it.
Her project attracted a lot of interest from area residents and the paint was barely dry before there were kids back on the court.
Congratulations Tanya!
Ikeda Metcalf - 2005
Ikeda Metcalf wanted to do something that would benefit the elderly residents of the development where she lived. These people live on fixed incomes and couldn’t afford to buy medical ID bracelets, so she decided to make them.
She did websearches hoping to find inexpensive bracelets for the residents, but had no luck. She then turned to craft sites to find materials to make the bracelets herself. Once she found the bracelets she wanted to use, she ordered them and recruited helpers.
Ikeda and her helpers hand delivered flyers to 4 residential towers to let the residents know when she and her volunteers would be at the Midrise to create and donate the bracelets.
The turnout was excellent, but the residents left with more than just bracelets. The teens discovered that even more than the bracelets, the residents valued the gift of their time. The older people loved having someone new to talk to, someone who hadn’t already heard all about their various medical complaints, someone who was just really interested in what they had to say. Ikeda and her volunteers walked away with a new perspective on the elderly.
Congratulations Ikeda!
Amanda Schaub - 2005
Amanda Schaub at the age of 16 had to have surgery to realign her jaw. She awoke from the surgery to find her jaws wired shut for three weeks. She found the dietary suggestions supplied by the hospital not to her liking and also inadequate for someone that needed to use a tube and syringe. Her mom created recipes based on her likes and needs, and at the end of her 3 weeks Amanda found that she had not lost a single pound.
Amanda then decided to share her experience and the recipes with others and set out to find a better way. She joined a “Yahoo” support group where she shared her goal with the group and asked them to share their tips and recipes that they found worthwhile. She organized friends and family and researched and tested recipes, got advice from her surgeon, and compiled and published a 70 page recipe booklet/CD about blenderized meals.
She also included additional information on new products that are available to assist those who need a blenderized diet. The CD has been presented to area hospitals and copies of the CD have been created for, or e-mailed to various individuals in need of such a resource. Also a copy has been uploaded on a “Yahoo” group to their resource files.
Congratulations Amanda!
Tiffany Murray - 2006
Tiffany Murray had a neighbor who had passed away from Leukemia at an early age, so she wanted her project to be connected somehow to that disease. She decided to make soft, colorful fleece blankets to donate to the patients at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. She felt that they would help brighten up that sterile, cheerless place, and show the kids there that other people were thinking about them.
During the course of her project, Tiffany herself was diagnosed with Adult Leukemia. Her first thought after being told was not about herself. She just wanted to know if she would be able to finish her project so that the kids in the hospital would get their blankets.
Her project was put on hold while she underwent a bone marrow transplant and a 6 month recovery period at home. She was then able to slowly get back to her project.
Tiffany researched fabric companies to get donations and hunted down sales so that she could make as many blankets as possible. Her goal was 40 blankets.
A week before she passed away, she had all the materials she needed for the project, and was putting the finishing touches on a flyer to recruit people to sew decorative edges on all the blankets.
With the Girl Scout Council’s permission, the girls and leaders in her troop were able to complete the project in her memory. A Junior troop in her service unit donated 40 pillows to go along with the 40 blankets the troop was able to complete.
Congratulations Tiffany. Our condolences to Tiffany's parents. She is missed.