Turtle Ramps in Queens

I am often asked, what does a Gold Award Project look like, that maybe doesn't hit homelessness, domestic violence, social justice, literacy, etc.  This one was posted in the GSUSA blog this week.  Take a look at what Katherine Kurre did for her Gold. 

The New York Daily News reports that Katherine Kurre was enchanted by the sight of turtles sunning themselves at a local park in Queens, NY. But she thought there must be a better and safer way for them to relax out of the reach of curious kids and potential poachers.

With the blessing and guidance of the Parks Department, Kurre put together a plan and a team of volunteers, including friends and family.

They designed and built the turtle island out of composite material. And they also embarked on an ambitious clean-up of the pond area which had been battered by flooding and erosion. The group fished paving stones out of the pond and reset them into a patio area. They also reclaimed logs that had washed into the pond and rebuilt the low rustic trail fence. In addition, they removed invasive plants and unclogged some of the streams that feed into the pond.

Does this qualify.  Errr, yes, I think, and here's how the backstory might look:

DISCOVER  Katherine saw a need in her community.  She identified her issue (Helping the animals at the site? or was it a larger environmental issue?) and the root cause (the turtles needed a safe environment? be eco-smart and re-create a healthy environment in the park?).

CONNECT  She did the research, and found that there were turtle ramps that could be purchased and installed to help the turtles.  Katherine partnered with an agency that had experience with the site and its needs.  She gathered a team of non-GS people to lead.  I hope she engaged them by giving education to her team, having them tell others about the project. 

TAKE ACTION  And from there, she took action. Not only did she put in turtle ramps, but she and her team also cleaned up the site and made it more useable for the community. And more ecologically sound, it seems.

SUSTAINABLE The article doesn't say, but I truly hope that she put a plan in place or the Parks Department to continue the work she started.  The requirement is to "plan for sustainability", not just hand over a notebook. I also hope that there was a community action piece in her project, where she was able to post on the Park's Website or create a link from there to her site giving information about the animals, why it was important to do this project, and how other people could volunteer to help in the future.

MEASURABLE  How did she measure success?  By counting live turtles?  By counting visitors to the site?  How was she able to confirm that she made a difference?  I wonder if she participated in a Parks Day/Community Fair/Grand Opening where she was able to hand out literature about the site, what she did and why, and how others could help?

GLOBAL IMPLICATION  Was Katherine able to think bigger?  To imagine how this could look if EVERY site in her town could do something like this?  The city? the other boroughs? the state? If her true message was about the environment, then how could her project make the world a better place for everyone?

It's a Gold Award Take Action Project.

 

 

Observation and Discovery

"To acquire knowledge, one must study; but to acquire wisdom, one must observe."

Marilyn vos Savant,
American columnist

I pretty much always read this author's column in the Los Angeles Times Calendar section on Sundays.  I'm hoping that Marilyn is a real person, and that the "Letters to the Savant" are real too!  (If not, please don't burst my bubble of belief!)  Sometimes she is figuring out the answers to riddles and trick questions, but then I read a quote like this, and I remember why I like her column all over again!  She thinks!

The Girl Scout Leadership Experience (GSLE) is all about acquiring knowledge:  that's where the badge work comes in. And it's all about leadership:  that's where the Journeys come in.  As our girls work through both badges and Journeys, they're getting ready for something bigger and better.

That would be the Gold Award Project!  This is where we truly want the girls to use their skills and leadership to make the world a better place.  And the first thing we ask them to do is to observe.  To DISCOVER what needs there are in the community that need addressing?  To discover who needs help?  Who already serves this population?  What agency is looking for help? etc.

And then we ask her to acquire the knowledge:  to CONNECT to the issue and audience she wishes to reach.  To connect to the issue, be it homeless puppies, homeless people, bike riders, joggers or whomever!  The girl needs to dive deep and come up with some answers! 

Then she gathers her team and TAKES ACTION to make a sustainable difference in the community.  Not a service project, merely making a difference for a day, but to make a difference in the long term.  It needs to be measurable and sustainable.

Discover, Connect and Take Action. That's what GSLE all about!

Drop-in Session

We had a small but fun group of girls show up last Sunday to talk about their Gold Award Projects.  

As you know, I hope, the Gold Award Support Team offers these sessions quarterly to girls who are ready to begin their Gold Award Project process.  That means, each of the girls had completed a Senior/Ambassador Journey, and a Silver Award Project OR two Cadette Journeys. She is now ready to begin work on her Gold.   The drop-in sessions are there for the girls to chat with someone, not a relative, leader or advisor, about their plans.

Pretty much, each girl had an idea, and some even had the starts of their applications, when they came in to talk with us.  I chatted with three girls from one troop. Two had a pretty good start on their ideas for the Gold, they just needed to finish sleuthing out some details before writing up their proposals and submitting them.  One girl was still in the throes of deciding what to do!  She started off talking about a project to benefit Girl Scouts.  I had to nix that right away.  

The Gold Award Project must benefit the community, not the GS community.  So we talked a bit about what she liked:  what was her passion?  Turns out, she's a violinist.  So how could she use that passion to help others?  Or how could she use those students to become her team for her Gold Take Action Project?  I think that there were more questions that answers, but she was open to looking at it from different directions.

I hope she's successful, and works with her advisor to identify the issue and root cause that she wants to address.  I look forward to seeing her proposal, along with the other two girls'.  All 3 are on the road to Gold success, and I wish them all the best.

Take Courage!

Courage and perseverance have a magical talisman, before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish into air."     

         --John Quincy Adams,
           Sixth U.S. President

We want our girls to lead with courage, confidence and character to make the world a better place!  And I think JQA had it right:  courage can be contagious.  And courage with a stick-to-itiveness is hard to beat!

How can our girls gain the courage to create a stupendous Gold Award Take Action Project?  How can they learn to lead?

How can they self esteem and self-confidence to choose an issue and make it their own?

The Girl Scout Leadership Experience (GSLE) provides the opportunity for the girls to gain these great skills in the Journeys.  Throughout all the Journeys, at each level, the girls are asked to lead their own experience at their age level.  So, as they progress up that Ladder of Leadership, they gain new skills and refresh learned ones.  It's not as though they are all of a sudden given the Gold Award Take Action Project out of the blue!  The girls have had the opportunity to practice, to get ready, by completing their Bronze and Silver Take Action Projects and/or by completing Journeys and badges.

After years of Scouting, our girls are ready to take on the challenge of the Gold!  With our bolstering, support and cheerleading, they are ready to gather up their courage and make a change in their community.  We encourage all of you to encourage THEM to lead with courage and to persevere to achieve their goals. Courage and certainty are contagious, and our girls can call on these attributes as they use their leadership to affect change.

I"ve said it before, and I'll probably say it again:  our girls CAN do it!

Starting from the Beginning

"The distance is nothing;
it's only the first step that is difficult."
         - Marquise du Deffand, (1697 - 1780) 
           French hostess and patron of the arts

And for our girls, sometimes it's that first step that is the most difficult!  As one troop leader shared, "I wanted to light a fire under her, to make a decision on what to do, then go DO it!"  Another shared that her daughter had soooo many good ideas and pieces of ideas, that she just felt overwhelmed and dispirited. 


What can we do to get the girl started?  Besides the proverbial lighting of the fire? Waving a magic wand?   Sorry, no easy answer here, though wand waving is quite in vogue, now.


We truly want the Gold Award Project to be girl driven, and we want her to put her passion for one idea or one issue into play.  But we project advisors, parents and troop advisors also need to provide the prod or nudge to move our girls forward.  

Maybe it's time to switch off?  If you've been the prodder, maybe hand her off to your co-leader? or ask the right parent to step up and work with one/all the girls on their Gold Award Projects.  Sometimes, hearing it from a different person can make all the difference.  Or have her stop by our quarterly Sunday drop-in sessions at council.  She can bring her ideas and talk them through with a member of the Gold Award Interviewers. Maybe hearing something from one of us would be helpful?

Or maybe ask the girl to provide an itinerary for a field trip?  Set up appointments at different interesting (to her) locations, and have the girl see first hand what she could do and/or who she might work with.  Not only could this be great for the girl, but an eye opener for the venue/staff she meets with.  Our girls are asking to do something bigger and more meaningful than a mere collection project.  She is looking to TAKE ACTION to make a change in her community.


Then help her to process all that info!  Perhaps a SWOT analysis would help?  Or perhaps she'll have an "ah-ha" moment and really focus down to what she wants to do.  


We can all hope!  And encourage!  And support!! Any other ideas?  Please post!

What a Take Action Project CAN look like!

For her Gold Award project, Rebecca created a website for orchestra music inventory among middle schools in Northern New Jersey. The site lists all the sheet music each school orchestras had on hand and the contact information for the schools’ music directors.

"An orchestra cannot play all the music in their music library at once," said Rebecca. "So if a school wanted to work on a piece but did not have the funding to purchase the music, they can use my website to see which towns have the music and contact that school’s music director to borrow it."

Rebecca’s website currently has more than 1,000 titles that can be borrowed for full orchestras, string orchestras and chamber ensembles. (from the GSUSA blog 6-1-12)

YES!  This is Gold Award Project quality!  Rebecca identified a need and discovered the root cause of the need.  I'm assuming that she gathered a team to help her inventory and sort all the music.  So, she used her leadership. She also used skills in working with other adults:  contacting all the schools, getting lists, maybe verifying the actual score availability.

I'm also assuming that she created sustainability by handing the website inventory over to the school district? a teacher?  music director? who will add new music in.  Also, perhaps she created a way to have the music come back to the right school.  Maybe she found a group on campus to do a yearly inventory/update as part of their service club hours?  Or perhaps her orchestra as HS has taken on that role?

I can only hope!  

What a Take Action Project should NOT look like!

"Pennsylvania's South Whitehall Patch reports that Meredith-Ann Beam, 18, has been awarded the Girl Scout Gold Award.  Beam's project included crocheting five baby blankets, knitting another five baby blankets, making 40 regular-sized blankets and making 70 bears for children at various local organizations.


“I taught the younger scouts how to knit and crochet the baby blankets and teddy bears for children to cuddle with," she said. "They were given to Bayada Pediatrics, Catholic Charities, Turning Point, Sacred Heart Hospital and Lehigh Valley Hospital.”  from the GSUSA blog 6-1-12

Did this project meet the current Gold Award Project requirements?  In a word, NO!  This was a nice service project.  Kudos that it involved teaching younger girls, and that it was a great output of product that was donated to the local hospitals.  But did it make a lasting change?  NO!  How was this sustainable?  

These are the questions we ask the girls when we talk with them about their projects.  What is the issue?  A need for blankets is NOT an issue, it's the result of something else.  Lack of funding?  Lack of an organized group to collect and make blankets? Or what?  

What could have made this a Gold Award standard project?  

Identifying the need.  

Discovering the root cause.

Connecting to the need and issue and developing a plan that attacks them!  Finding a Project Advisor.

Taking Action by putting together a project plan, gathering a team, educating others and working the plan.

Making a sustainable difference in the community.

Could the collection piece be included?  ABSOLUTELY!  But it can't be the whole project!  It should  be a small piece of the overall project. As one of our Gold girls said, "people like to give around Christmas, so I have a collection piece as part of my overall program, just for December."  She had a point!  Her club at school really connected with the students at school, by soliciting donations AS THEY GAVE OUT INFORMATION about the charity.  And the charity benefited from the service project.  

As we say in training, Girl Scouts has RAISED THE BAR on what a Gold Award Project looks like!  Here in Orange County, we are truly trying to hold the girls to the higher standard.

(On a separate note...my apologies for a lack of posts the end of the month!  I'll be getting back on track, starting today!  I think life just got in my way.  You know, visiting relatives, work, Mom, other GS events.... Speaking of, hope to see you all at the Adult Recognition Event on Sunday!  Bling it!)