By Heather Lusk
Members of Girl Scout Troop 1880 in Zionsville are on the last leg of their Scouting journey, working individually on Gold Award Projects to present to Girl Scouts of Central Indiana.
The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest honor for Girl Scouts. Almost every member of the troop, most of whom have been together since kindergarten, has a project under way or has completed one
Each Scout must track 80 hours of work on the project, must ensure it’s sustainable and it must benefit the community.
Scout Elyse Heiser is in the process of creating weather-proof banners honoring World War II veterans for the Bloor Road roundabout. She was inspired by Bronze and Silver Award Projects her troop completed, in which Scouts interviewed World War II veterans, then raised money to send seven veterans on an Honor Flight to the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
“I wanted to continue with the veterans and give our community more knowledge on who our World War II veterans are,” said Heiser, adding that she also was inspired by her grandfather, who served in the Korean War.
“I loved talking with all of the veterans and hearing their stories,” Heiser said.
Scout Kate Swack turned a plan to learn more about STEM careers into her project. She created a blog of interviews with females in medical and engineering fields to help her and others determine which areas of STEM might be of interest.
“I found that a lot of girls don’t know much about the STEM field,” she said.
Swack’s careercallings.wordpress.com website will soon include resources with college information. The project also helped her learn interviewing skills, listening skills and etiquette.
Other projects will have longevity in the community.
Scout Sarah Beck is working with the Zionsville Nature Center to create an exhibit about bats, with a raffle for visitors to win bat houses. Scout Madelyn Reid is repainting five games on the Stonegate
Elementary blacktop after a repaving project erased the previous games.
All of the projects are expected to be completed by the end of the year.
