LAMORINDA WEEKLY | A Silver Experience


Sasha Newton ( left) and Shelley Kwok . Photo Elizabeth Newton

For nearly a hundred years, Girl Scouts have been helping their community through means of service. Whether it's assisting the elderly or picking up trash, Girl Scouts have always been ready to offer their aid. Often times, these services are needed to complete a Bronze, Silver, or Gold Award project. These endeavors teach girls about leadership and helping others in many different ways.

It took much coordination to get to the "take-action" part of our project. Our first step towards our Silver Award project was to complete the "Leadership Journey Book," called Breathe. After we finished that, we decided to enhance our town through means of gardening and painting. We were able to accomplish this by contacting the trail supervisor of the East Bay Regional Parks District and an Assistant Principal and Grounds Keeper for the school district.

In order for our project to be successful, we needed to develop a team of people that could help us with all aspects of our project. This consisted of our dedicated troop leader and project supervisor, Sue Olson, as well as the help of many volunteers and advisors.

We accumulated the majority of our hours (leadership, as well as action) in two different ways. This included painting the rail fences of the Lafayette-Moraga Trail with the help of others and weeding the flower and plant beds of our local high school.

In addition to all this labor and leadership, we spent a lot of time collaborating with each other. The two of us learned much about time management, leadership, organization, and communication. If you (or anyone else) are interested in a simpler version of this project, you can go to www.ebparks.org/getinvolved/volunteer to help out. We highly recommend doing this as a way to help your community. You probably won't earn an award but the feeling of helping is gratifying enough!