Puppy Projects

"Aberdeen Fire and Rescue now has the equipment to save pets who have inhaled too much smoke thanks to the efforts of a local Girl Scout.
 Sabrina Mount, 18, who has been a member of the Girl Scouts for 12 years as part of Troop 40124, donated three oxygen mask kits to Aberdeen Fire and Rescue, as part of Mount's gold award project, the highest honor a Girl Scout can receive. The masks are designed specifically for animals...."

For those of you who have had me co-train the  Silver or Gold Award Workshops, you know that I tend to pick on the "puppy projects" in class.  Now, I don't hate puppies, but I use the term because it's a prime example of starting with a project, and not an issue. Many a little (and not so little) girl thinks of wanting to help the puppies.  Nice for a service project, but it doesn't have her start with the issue she wants to address for her Gold Take Action Project. 

And then I read in the GSUSA Blog today, about a girl who did a Gold Puppy Project.  And there are so many things wrong with it!  She raised money to buy 3 puppy inhalation masks.  And that's against the rules of the Gold.  The project can't be just about soliciting money to buy something.  

She did have an education piece to hand out, talking about how the fire department would use the masks to help dogs?  But who was her team?  And how did she reach the constituency she wanted to serve?  

I guess I'd have to say that it was sustainable!  The FDs will be able to use this equipment for years to come.  And it's measurable, as the FD can keep track of how many animals it saves with this new device. I bet she could easily have talked about the global aspect, of what if all FDs had this mask, how many more puppies would be saved.

And she used leadership to raise the money and buy the masks.  But from the article, it sounded like that's all she did. Now, I'm only reading a newspaper report, and goodness knows that they don't always get all the info in!  I think the key take-aways are that girls may not ask for donations to buy things to benefit a charity.  And that a Take Action Project needs to have the girl use her leadership by building a team, educating them, and then have them help her Take Action.