Girl Scouts of Central & Southern NJ (GSCSNJ) is the premier organization serving 19,000 girls in over nine counties. GSCSNJ will shape leaders for tomorrow by empowering girls to take on bold challenges, discover their own passions and strengths, act with character, and engage fully in fun, relevant experiences that encourage friendships and build life-long skills.
Bronze. Silver. Gold. These represent the highest honors a Girl Scout can earn. All three awards give you the chance to do big things while working on an issue you care about. Whether you want to plant a community garden at your school and inspire others to eat healthily for your Bronze, advocate for animal rights for your Silver, or build a career network that encourages girls to become scientists and engineers for your Gold, you’ll inspire others (and yourself).
Equally important are the Take Action projects and volunteerism that our girls have accomplished. Read below for more...The Town & Country Service Unit couldn't be prouder of our girls!!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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
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!
I (Lauren) have allergies and Amanda's sister has allergies too. We wanted to educate and help people learn about allergies and how severe they can be. Our project was originally geared to educate school age children by having posters and brochures displayed in local middle schools. Our original plan was made before Covid-19, we had to rework the project from in person education to virtual. Instead of posters and brochures we created a website. As a bonus we can reach outside our local community and even provide additional instruction and guidance for Girl Scouts.
We taught ourselves how to use the website program and used one of their templates to create our website. We researched the allergens that we felt was most important to know for middle school age children. We put all of our findings onto the website, including our resources, information about Girl Scouts, earning a Silver Award and a fun patch requirements sheet. Help us spread the word about the website with QR codes on flyers or posting the link to our website and telling other Girl Scouts as well. Our goal is to have this shared, especially during May, which is allergy awareness month. We also made fun patch requirements for a Girl Scout to complete.
Visit their website!! https://troop22254.wixsite.com/allergies
My name is Kayla and I chose to address young people being challenged by their emotional health. I made a website for kids/young people to inform them on emotional health and to raise awareness. I originally worked on this as a group project with 2 other girls in my troop. We decided to make a slideshow on emotional health with the help of the middle school guidance counselor. We researched mental health issues, create a slideshow presentation, and presented our slide show to 4th, 5th and 6th graders at Riverfront Middle School. Then my group took a break from the silver award for about a year as during this time Covid-19 happened and my 2 group members decided not to return to Girl Scouts. I ended up working independently on this project and brainstormed more ways on how I can earn the silver award. I started a website on emotional health and put information in about emotional health, bullying, anxiety, stress, and sadness.
Here is my website: https://troop22254.wixsite.com/healthy
Brookdale Senior housing: Holiday cards and snowflakes ornaments were made for the residents of Brookdale Senior housing in Florence NJ.
Florence Toy Drive: Girls purchased and wrapped XMAS gifts for less fortunate kids in the towns of Florence/Roebling. They also voted to purchase 6 additional gifts with their troop cookie money.
In May 2019, the girls of Troop 21513 bought pet supplies for their local animal shelter.
In December 2019, the girls of Troop 21513 sewed pillowcases for kids with cancer that were donated to children's hospitals.
The girls of Troop 21513 made reusable tote bags from old t-shirts. The troop then distributed them at the Roebling IGA so consumers would use less plastic during their grocery shopping.
In May 2019, Veronica spent the day performing Community Service at the Roebling Memorial in Roebling Park. The landscape was weeded, turned over and replanted with fresh flowers and mulch.
From June 2019 - September 2019, the Cadettes of Troop 25136 created a Community Garden at the Trinity United Methodist Church. The girls planned the garden, tilled it, fertilized it, bought the plants, and nurtured them throughout the summer. Each girl spent 25 hours over the summer watering, weeding and picking the harvest. The produce was passed onto the members of the church. The girls learned so much from this project. The rain barrel added a nice touch to using resources wisely.
Take Action project called Adopt-a-Cat Care Packages entailed bringing awareness of the need for adoption of cats at the Burlington County Animal Shelter. In an interview with the non-profit organization Friends of Burlington County Animal Shelter, we discovered that the Cat Live Exit numbers for 2017 had increased to 77% (that’s 2,366 cats finding a forever home), but the number of cats that were euthanized was still far too high. We decided that we would educate residents, young kids and Girl Scouts in our community about the need for adoption. We wanted to make the care packages because we felt that a positive adoption experience would encourage others to adopt too. We provided Tips & Tricks on proper cat care and the supplies needed to take care of their cat in the care packages.
We reached out to the community with informational flyers and requests for donations. We held a workshop for 55 Florence summer campers where we taught them how to provide proper cat care, how to make DIY Cat Toys and healthy nutritious cat treats. In September, we held a Brownie Pet Badge Workshop for the Girl Scouts in Florence. We wanted to make sure the younger scouts were involved in our project with the hope that it would inspire the scouts to continue our project. We had each girl build an Adopt-a-Care Cat Package so they had first-hand knowledge of the supplies a cat needs and how to make the packages.
With the money earned from our Bake Sale and the community/scout donations received, we were able to make (25) Adopt-a-Cat Care packages that were taken to the Burlington County Animal Shelter. It was very gratifying to see as we were leaving the shelter, a new adoptive parent walking towards the door with an Adopt-a-Cat Care package we had just delivered. The adoptive parent thanked us for the supplies and was very excited to take her new cat home. It meant so much to us to see that moment and to know another cat had found its forever home
Congratulations to our 2017 Gold Award recipients awarded on May 21, 2017
Taylor Troop 25136: Take Action project called Operation Free Hot Meal entailed providing a Free Community Dinner once a month for the first quarter of 2017 for community seniors and low-income families who visit our local food banks. She wanted to bring awareness of the hunger issue in her our own community to the young people. She attended FTMHS National Honor Society (NHS) and Girl Scout Troop meetings to relay her message. She hosted (2) Free Community Dinners after receiving donations from local businesses and enlisted NHS students and sister Girl Scouts to assist with the prep, serving and cleanup of the event. She created a recipe booklet "Recipes under $5" with recipes submitted from T&C troops that were distributed to all diners that attended. Taylor distributed (3) $200 checks to each Florence Food Bank and collected 170 canned donations which was split between 2 Food Banks. To continue this project, contact Taylor at tmddazzle@gmail.com for further information. Thank you!
2017_flyer_for_gold_wiencek.pdf
Aimee Troop 23294: Take Action project called Through the Lens of Accomplished Women: Encouraging Girls to Dream Big. Partnering with the Alice Paul Institute (API), an organization committed to girls' leadership development, she interviewed women from a variety of professional fields and posted their interviews to the Alice Paul Institute YouTube channel.
All of the videos are available now at: https://www.youtube.com/user/alicepaul1885/playlists Click on the "through the Lens of Accomplished Women" playlist or click:
Can also be found on Twitter:
To continue this project contact Aimee at nwiencek@comcast.net for further information. Thank You!
Nicole Troop 22260: Take Action project called Yards of Love. The main focus of her project was to make fleece blankets with crochet borders for the patients and their families of Samaritan Healthcare & Hospice. She created poem books with student written poems to leave in patient rooms for them to enjoy. She organized and hosted several workshops to teach attendees how to make the blankets. She attended GS troop meetings to show younger scouts how to crochet and/or do no-sews. Nicole delivered 79 hand-made blankets and poem books to Samaritan Healthcare and Hospice. To continue this project contact Nicole at troop22260@gmail.com for further information. Thank You!
Two girls from Troop #23294 have been volunteering with the Kaleidoscope Therapeutic Riding Program at Flora Lea Farms in Medford to earn their Ambassador Community Service Bar. The Kaleidoscope program is designed to help children with physical, cognitive and/or emotional disabilities through equine assisted activities. The therapy works to improve the rider's self-esteem, improves balance, coordination, muscle tone and strength. The girls spot the riders during their lessons, help care for the horses and aid in the farm work. Great job girls!!
The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can earn. Gold Award Girl Scouts are the dreamers and the doers who take “make the world a better place” to the next level. The Girl Scout Gold Award is the mark of the truly remarkable—proof that not only can she make a difference, but that she already has.
Seniors and Ambassadors who earn the Gold Award tackle issues that are dear to them and drive lasting change in their communities and beyond. Think of the Gold Award as a key that can open doors to scholarships, preferred admission tracks for college, and amazing career opportunities.
You're in high school (ninth through twelfth grade, or equivalent)
You're registered as a Girl Scout Senior or Girl Scout Ambassador
You have completed two Senior or Ambassador Journeys OR earned the Girl Scout Silver Award and completed a Journey
Identify an issue
Investigate your issue thoroughly
Get help and build your team
Create a plan
Present your plan and gather feedback
Take action
Educate and inspire
When Girl Scout Cadettes focus on an issue they care about, learn the facts, and take action to make a difference, they gain the confidence and skills that will catapult them to lifelong success. It all adds up to the Girl Scout Silver Award—the highest honor a Cadette can achieve.
You're in middle school (sixth, seventh, or eighth grade (or equivalent))
You're a registered Girl Scout Cadette
You have completed a Cadette Journey
Identify an issue you care about
Build your Girl Scout Silver Award team or decide to go solo
Explore your community
Pick your Silver Award project
Develop your project
Make a plan and put it into motion
Reflect, share your story, and celebrate
Welcome to the Girl Scout Bronze Award, the highest honor a Girl Scout Junior can achieve. As you and your team plan and complete your project, you'll meet new people and have the kind of fun that happens when you work with other Girl Scouts to make a difference.
The Bronze Award is Leader Approved. So, you, as a leader, will have the girls work through the steps of the Bronze Award. Each girl completes the Bronze Award Final Report and submits it to you. The Final Report completion for each girl is a great exercise to work on together as a troop in preparation for the Silver and Gold Awards! The Final Reports for the girls are not required to be turned in to Council.
You're in fourth or fifth grade (or equivalent)
You're a registered Girl Scout Junior
You have completed a Junior Journey
Bronze Award workshops are optional!
Build your Girl Scout Junior team
Explore your community
Choose your Bronze Award project
Make a plan
Put your plan in motion
Spread the word
Be a leader and earn your Silver Torch award by first completing a Cadette Journey and then serving one full term in a leadership role.
Be a leader and earn your Silver and Gold Torch award by first completing a Senior Journey and then serving one full term in a leadership role.
Be a leader and earn your Gold Torch award by first completing an Ambassador Journey and then serving one full term in a leadership role.
Community Service Bar
The Community Service Bar is awarded to girls who are exceptional volunteers. Choose an organization that you are passionate about helping, ask them to provide a ‘volunteer job description,’ and get your Leader’s approval. This organization can be any 501-C3 (not Girl Scouts), place of worship, or non-profit. After you serve for at least 20 hours, you’ve earned the award
Earn this award by completing at least 20 hours of service to Girl Scouting. Service examples include: helping your service unit, participating in a camp clean-up day, volunteering at day camp, or helping at council events. Hours can be spread out among multiple events or projects, just as long as you’re helping your Girl Scout sisters!