Veronica C. Troop 25136 – Tracking Health Silver Award Project

My Silver Award project - Tracking Health promoted health & wellness initiatives that will benefit our community. I chose this project because of the increasing number of children and adults in America that are obese. Obesity in America affects nearly 35 percent of adults and 18 percent of children, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. I knew that I had to try to help in some way. I decided to start in my community. It is well known that staying active helps with weight control. I found this saying that I read and was inspired by on a Harvard.edu website on obesity: replace “sit time” with “fit time”. The focus of my project was targeted to the Roebling Park where I placed distance mile markers around the (2) measured walking paths. Two new Community Bulletin Boards were installed at the park. I was sure to include in the bulletin boards a map of the park showing the measured walking paths, our free community fitness classes/schedules, upcoming community activities and health and wellness tips. I’m hoping to draw our kids to their local park where they can set goals and exercise instead of playing video games. Visitors and residents of our community can stay up to date on Wellness Clinics, Senior Exercise classes, or Youth Exercise classes. I want to encourage those walking or running to set goals by using the distance trail markers as a means to strive to the next marker. Just one more quarter mile. I can do it!

Prior to the pandemic, I had planned for a Color Run and Health Fair that would’ve completed my project. The distance trail markers were purchased through the generous donations of my sponsors. The remaining funds of $663.00 was donated to the Florence Twp Health and Wellness Programs to assist with the purchase of fitness supplies. In the spring, I look forward to installing the additional distance trail markers purchased for the Veterans Park in Florence.

Savannah P. Troop 25136 – Helping Hands Florence Silver Award Project

My Silver Award project – Helping Hands Florence addresses the issue of homelessness in our communities. In the U.S, ½ a million people are experiencing homelessness and have had to seek out temporary housing or transitional housing to get back on their feet. In New Jersey, 2020 statistics show that there are 9,663 men, women and children that are homeless. There were 1,601 households that were chronically homeless and 1,786 who were unsheltered. The pandemic has only increased those numbers. My research showed that the top 10 reasons why people are homeless is due to stagnant wages, unemployment, lack of affordable housing, lack of affordable healthcare, poverty, lack of mental health and addiction treatment services, racial inequality, domestic violence, family conflict, and systemic failures (society failing to identify and support those at risk of losing their home).

Homelessness is too big of an issue for me to solve by myself but I thought that I could bring awareness to the issue in my community and those that follow my social media, and focus my efforts to the residents and transients that use the services provided at a local transitional housing shelter called Extended Hand Ministries in Mount Holly NJ. The food pantry serves an average of 170 families each month and they provide each family with 2 weeks supply of groceries, meats, vegetables, toiletries and breads. Hot takeout meals are available 4 days a week from 1 – 2pm. On a typical day, they provide 25-30 takeout meals a day. Their program includes a 28-day transitional housing program for 12 residents where they use the services provided to get back on their feet and look for work. In the winter, they have a large tent that serves as warming station too.

I wanted to find out how I could best help the homeless there. Jennie, the house manager, relayed that there is always a need for personal hygiene items for those using their services. She also relayed that she was in need of volunteers to cover the lunch shift. Jennie inspired Helping Hands Florence. Through the help of my community, I was able to collect 1,920 travel sized donations in a 3 month period. Initially my plan was to donate 50 care packages but with the generous support of my community, I was able to increase that to 100 care packages which I hand delivered to Jennie. I enjoyed the time I spent there working the lunch shift. Many thanks to Lauren P, a former Troop 25136 scout who inspired me years ago with her Naming the Homeless Non-Profit project and counseled me on how to get started. A very special thanks to Troop 22536 who helped me fill 100s of trial size containers to put in the duffel bag care packages.

Trinity H. Troop 25136 – Sprouting Healthy Habits Silver Award Project

My project called Sprouting Healthy Habits addresses unhealthy eating and what we can all do for ourselves and others by eating what you grow. Experts say that the main reason the American diet is considered unhealthy is because approximately 36% of the population eats high-fat foods, consumes sodas and sugary drinks, and does too little exercise. People think that eating healthy is hard to do but really little things can make a big difference. Growing a garden is easy to do and can be planted almost anywhere. My new motto is: “Don’t super size it, grow it!” My research showed that the reason people do not eat healthy was a result of lack of time and a busy schedule, the cost of healthy food for those at the poverty level, dysfunctional family situation, family not eating meals together, poor eating habits modeled by parents/caretakers, lack of knowledge about what is healthy to eat, depression or the person just doesn’t want to eat healthy.

Due to the fact that unhealthy eating is such a widespread global issue, I decided to start tackling the issue within my own community. I started working at my local community garden to help prepare the garden beds for planting; 12 out of 18 plots were overgrown with weeds. No one was signing up since the plots were too much work to clean up. So I decided to take on the task of cleaning all 12 of the beds. It was my goal to make the plots usable for planting healthy vegetables. This inspired me to come up with my Sprouting Healthy Habits project where I planted my own vegetable garden, sprouted healthy vegetables that were distributed at our local food bank, and provided healthy homegrown recipes for the vegetables that were harvested. My project advisor presented an opportunity to combine forces with the Florence Twp High School students who were working on a horticulture project with their teacher. They were learning growing stages of various vegetable plants from seedlings and the importance of sustainability. It was a great day when we met, discussed our various projects and collaborated at the Florence Community Garden to prepare it for the summer growing season.

Together with my support team, I made sure that the garden was harvested and the vegetables were taken to a food pantry each week. I’ve picked at least 100 tomatoes this summer. I created a Homegrown Recipe book that was distributed at the food pantry. I sold my healthy eating idea by putting the recipes right there with the healthy vegetables. I relayed how to make homemade sauce using all of the plum tomatoes from the garden and included many fresh recipes for the vegetables and herbs harvested. I also included the locations and pickup times for the local food pantries and links on the Top 10 benefits of gardening, Maintaining a Healthy Vegetable Garden and Vertical Gardening DIY. And I have installed a number garden stake at each plot. The last step of my project was to show the community a vertical herb garden using the chain link fence surrounding the garden. I used quart soda bottles for some plantings, and Wawa Tea containers for other herbs. I wanted to show people with limited space that they could use other methods to plant a garden. Due to generous community support, I was able to donate to our local food bank $128.

Troop 21513 - World Clean Up Day

World Cleanup Day is an annual global social action program aimed at combating the global solid waste problem and it is the biggest positive civic action the world has seen. The girls in Troop 21513 decided to do their part on Saturday September 18th and cleanup Wilkie Park in Florence Township.

Troop 21513 - Family Fun Day

The sun was definitely shining Saturday as Troop 21513 co-hosted a family fun day with Roebling Museum! Kids in our community were offered free pumpkins to paint and various other fall and Halloween crafts. Admission for kids was complimentary for the day as well!

Elizabeth B. Troop 25112 - The Future is Bright in Exploring Science Gold Award Project

My Girl Scout Gold Award Project focused on creating a program that ran lessons for underprivileged children in Stem fields. My goal was to make my project really engaging by incorporating experiments in a variety of subjects such as: chemistry, biology, and physics, along with mini lessons. First, I conducted a road clean up with some of my fellow troop members in my community in order to acquire funds. Then, I contacted the Children’s Homes Society of New Jersey to work with a group of wonderful children. For eight weeks, I ran different experiments such as slime making, popsicle catapult building, and tshirt chromatography. After working with these children for several weeks, Covid 19 hit and the last couple of sessions were cancelled. As a result, I changed my plan and used the remaining funds to purchase supplies and provided instructions for two of my experiments, the popsicle stick catapults and the ultraviolet bracelets. I called this part of my project, “Science in a Bag.” I donated a little under 200 science kits to the Children's Homes Society, so that they could distribute them to the families within their network. Especially in the time of quarantine, it was important to provide support and give these children something to work on. Lastly, I designed a website to share my experiments and bring more recognition to my project along with the Children's Homes Society of New Jersey.

For more information, check out Liz's website!

https://sites.google.com/view/ebanas-gs-gold-award-project/home-page?authuser=0

Troop 21513- Project Linus

Project Linus is an non-profit organization that collects and distributes blankets to children in hospitals, shelters, social service agencies, or anywhere that a child might be in need of a big hug. The girls of Troop 21513 took part in this service project and donated 10 hand tied blankets!