Six Medfield Girl Scouts Receive Gold Award

Six Medfield Girl Scouts -- Lucille Allen, Brianna Cusanno, Abby Grant, MaryEllen Krah, Jennifer Lifsitz and Kara O'Connell -- received their Girl Scout Gold Award pin on Wednesday, June 20, at a ceremony at the Boxborough Holiday Inn.

The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest award that a Girl Scout can achieve, and it recognizes a service project that fulfills a need within a girl's community whether local or global, creates change, and becomes ongoing, said Allison F. Rubin of GSEM in a press release.

Approximately five percent of all Girl Scouts earn this award each year which involves a minimum of 80 hours of service in addition to have earned the Silver Award (and its 50-hour service requirement).  

To qualify, the scout proposes a service project idea to a leadership team for approval.  The Gold Award process teaches organizational, leadership, and networking skills.

The Boxborough event was attended by family and friends, and Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts' Chief Executive Officer Ruth N. Bramson and Board President Peggy Stevens.

Allen’s project, Strike Out Stroke, used a softball tournament to help raise awareness of strokes. Allen and a team of volunteers presented student athletes from all over New England with information on strokes including symptoms, dangers, and preventative measures. The high school softball team and the Community Teens Service Club will continue this event annually.

Cusanno’s project, Act for Animals, created a series of donation bins to help supply the newly formed Metrowest Pet Pantry with pet food. Cusanno raised awareness of the pantry’s services within the various communities that needed the most help financially. Volunteers helped create flyers, write newspaper articles, and reach out to various organizations to provide information, tools and resources. Cusanno also recruited volunteers to build collection bins, design brochures and to take ownership of the system. The Medfield High School Community Teens Service Club will volunteer with the Pet Pantry to help ensure sustainability.

Grant’s Kindness for Kids created four fun activity days at the Medway Family Shelter. Grant and volunteers spent time with the children having snacks, making crafts and playing outside. The United Church of Christ-Medfield sponsored Grant's project so that she could provide backpacks full of age-appropriate toys, books, stuffed animals, and coloring supplies. Grant created a booklet and mailed it to 10 additional local shelters, describing in detail how to conduct the project so that volunteers can utilize the program to serve more children. The youth group at Grant's church will continue the project.

Krah’s Kids 2 Kids is an after-school program at Dale Street School in Medfield that helps integrate students of all social, learning, and physical abilities. Krah and the volunteers led the students in games, homework help, and crafts. The activities were created to be accessible to all children regardless of ability, so that students, with special needs and typical developmental abilities were able to work together. All of the children got much-needed support and gained new friendships in the process.

Lifsitz’s project, Sharing S.M.I.L.E.S., recruited volunteers to create and facilitate games at the Abundant Table soup kitchen, serve food and gather information for a resource booklet and pamphlets. The resource booklet includes information on shelter housing options, and other food and resource facility information. The take-away pamphlets include hotline numbers that may be useful to the guests. The Abundant Table staff and Medfield High School service club members will continue to provide essential volunteer support to the soup kitchen by serving meals and running the games.

O'Connell’s project, Betty Powers Library Preschool Story and Craft Hour, focused on illiteracy in children living in the Roxbury Tenants of Harvard/Mission Hill Housing Development by creating a program that made the children feel welcomed in the local library. The program includes a story hour in which volunteers read to the children and families, as well as related craft projects to help them remember the stories and lessons. O’Connell and her team collected over 2,000 books and four boxes of craft supplies, purchased 100 new books and created three months worth of craft hour activities for groups with up to 15 participants. The library is continuing the program with the assistance of a how-to binder containing all the pertinent information provided by O’Connell.

The Gold Award winners were also  at the Medfield Girl Scouts’ bridging ceremony on June 15.