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The Girl Scout Silver Award is the highest honor a Girl Scout Cadette can achieve. The award gives girls the opportunity to be organized, determined leaders who are dedicated to improving their community. Girl Scout Silver Award earners are part of an exceptional group of girls who have used their knowledge and leadership skills to make a difference in the world.
On Wednesday, November 17, we acknowledged the accomplishments of 58
incredible young women with individual recognitions with a ceremony
held at Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore's Program Activity Center in
Farmingdale. Together, these girls devoted over 2,650 hours of service
making a significant impact on their communities.
Bags to Benches
Aniela Adamski, New Egypt and
Miley Ferriolo, Cream Ridge
Miley and Aniela’s Bag to Benches project centered on reducing
the amount of single-use plastic in their community. They collected
over 1,500 pounds of stretchable plastic as part of Trex’s plastic
film recycling challenge. Trex takes recyclable items and turns them
into reusable items such as benches and decking. They advocated for
reusable items and placed three benches around their town for everyone
to enjoy.
The Book House
Morgan Lee, Hazlet
Morgan created The Book House, a mini library to provide free and easy access to books for children and teens in Keansburg. Located at a popular playground, the free library includes a variety of books for readers, preschool to high school. Keansburg youth and teens are encouraged to borrow books from the box and return them when finished or even exchange them for a different book of their own.
Book Tutoring Project
Catherine Callinan,
Caroline Flinn, and Sabina Murray, Rumson
Sabina, Catherine, and Caroline provided academic support to children in their community when they saw a need during the time of virtual schooling with their Silver Award, “Book Tutoring Project.” They created a tutoring program, a resource on YouTube to assist students with core subjects and donated a large number of books to the Bridge of Books Foundation and their local schools to help kids achieve academic success.
CARE ONE
Ella Bramley and Nicole Giglio, Wall Township
Ella and Nicole created a welcoming outdoor space at CARE ONE Rehabilitation Long Term Care Center in Wall Township where residents and staff could gather once pandemic restrictions eased and allowed visits with loved ones. They collected board games, books, and coloring books for the staff and residents to enjoy and donated Girl Scout Cookies with donations from a cookie drive. They also hosted a cookie monster cookie party for the staff and residents to complete their CARE ONE project.
Cloverdale Farm County Park Pollinator Project
Lillian Boyd
and Jordyn Glasser, Waretown
Lillian and Jordyn created a pollinator garden and a bee tower at Cloverdale Farm County Park in Barnegat after much research and donations from businesses. They hosted an open house with garden tours and lessons on how to build pollinator habitats and made educational signs about their project for park visitors. The project’s purpose was to help pollinators, like bees and butterflies, whose numbers are decreasing each year.
Crochet for a Cause
Anna Willmot, Point Pleasant
Anna’s Silver Award Project, “Crochet for a Cause,” was teaching other Girl Scouts the skill of crocheting and to make blankets for children or vets in the hospital. During several group meetings, she taught girls how to do basic crochet stitches of single and double crochet. Using these skills, they created 5x5 squares at home that Anna later stitched together to create lap blankets. The blankets were then donated to the veterans’ home locally. She was able to teach girls a life-long craft skill and help her community.
Dogs In Action
Shannon Calsetta, Jackson
Shannon’s “Dogs In Action” project culminated with a presentation to 28 Girl Scouts and 34 adults on the importance of K-9 departments to the public and law enforcement community. K-9 units from 11 different towns and their handlers were on hand to demonstrate training activities and equipment needed, and to discuss why these special canine heroes are important. She raised $900 to purchase oxygen masks for the arson dogs and Ocean County Fire Marshall’s office. She also created a “The K-9 Awareness Badge” that all Girl Scout attendees achieved by attending the presentation.
Educating Young Girls on Domestic Violence and Women’s
Shelters
Cathrine Volk, Jackson
Cathrine raised awareness about domestic violence and women’s shelters by creating a PowerPoint that was presented on Zoom and shared with many local schools and organizations. She also organized a drive to collect essential items for shelters such as clothes, personal hygiene products, and toys for children. Cathrine chose this project because she is passionate about gender equality and protecting young women and encourages all to learn about and support local shelters.
Engaging Seniors in Nature
Abigail Hartung,
Olivia Rinaldi, Sofia Rispoli, and Olivia Sullivan, Manalapan
Abigail, Olivia R. Olivia S, and Sofia made a difference in their community by creating a way for seniors and clients to engage with nature. Together the girls created stacked planters, bird boxes, planters, and bird houses that would connect seniors with the outside. They also built a raised garden bed as well. Overall, the girls wanted to brighten up their days with the things they provided and give them an opportunity to go outside and get a breath of fresh air while interacting with nature.
Fresh Farm Forever
Sophia O'Sullivan,
Spring Lake and Olive Stockton, Manasquan
For Sophia and Olive's Silver Award Take Action Project, “Fresh Farm Forever,” they worked to fight hunger in their community in an innovative way. The girls worked for 24 weeks with a local organization to hand out food and extra vegetables. They created a cookbook and donated it to “Coastal Habitat for Humanity,” so the organization could hand it out to it the families who received vegetables. The cookbook included healthy recipes that combined both fresh and common pantry food into one, delicious meal. At the end of the project, the girls were able to donate to over 20 families, making a brighter, healthier community during the global pandemic.
From Scratch Not a Box
Sarah Schrader, Point Pleasant
For Sarah’s Silver Award Take Action Project, “From Scratch Not a Box,” she taught virtual cooking classes to young Girl Scouts. These lessons were a way to teach the girls how to make simple, everyday things by themselves, as opposed to buying them from the store. Sarah's goal was to teach young girls how easy it is to make their favorite foods from home and to promote healthy eating. She started this project when Covid had just hit and turned the pandemic into an opportunity to hold these classes via Zoom. She taught multiple troops and girls with fun themed classes and by the end of the project, she had taught over 70 girls and spread the word through the community.
GEOcaching (Get Everyone Outside)
Anna DePinho, Millstone
Anna’s Silver Award project entitled "GEOcaching (Getting Everyone Outside)" was made with the intention of getting people back outdoors and exploring nature after the prolonged period of indoor isolation we all endured due to Covid restrictions, in addition to encouraging people to explore the local parks around town, especially the newer Millstone Park. To combat people turning to technology, she created five geocaches in a total of three local parks in Millstone Township, including Millstone Park, Abate Park, and Rocky Brook Park (all of which can be accessed on the 'Geocaching' app). In addition to SWAG, Anna created an informational PowerPoint about the location of each of the caches that you could access through a QR code in each of the containers.
Global Goals Presentation
Sophie Burden, Anna
Koechley, and Julia Koechley, Holmdel
For their Silver Award Project, “Global Goals Presentation,” the team of Sophie, Anna and Julia, focused on creating educational materials on the United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals. They each researched a goal that they felt most strongly about, and prepared individual slideshows that were combined into an educational video. The video was sent to troop leaders to be shared with their troops. The project goal was to educate fellow Girl Scouts and inspire them to find U.N. goals that are special to them.
Gun Safety: Educating and Empowering Students
Isabella Marotta, Eva Merhi, and Samantha Salerno, Holmdel
Isabella, Eva, and Samantha earned their Silver Award for creating a program to educate younger children about the dangers of gun violence and empower students by teaching about gun safety. All of the honorees for this project were victims of a past swatting incident when they were in third grade and each of the girls remembered the event vividly so much that it stayed with them. From this incident, a desire for change was born. Each of the girls took on a leadership aspect of the project which included a blog with research they did, a slide-show presentation, and a Quizziz game to ensure that the information was interpreted correctly by listeners. Each presentation was customized to the age and region of the country that the girls were addressing. The girls hoped that, by creating and presenting a blog and slideshow on this important topic, they could inspire a more informed generation--starting with the Girl Scouts that they presented to.
Happy to Healthy
Ava Chiaravallo and Bella
Chiaravallo, Toms River
For Bella and Ava’s, Silver Award Project, they created an Instagram and YouTube account titled “Happy to Healthy.” On their account, they provide recipes that are both unique and healthy, therefore helping to promote healthy eating. The healthy recipes that are created are shared through social media platforms, in order to make the recipes accessible to everyone. The girls worked together to come up with simple yet healthy recipes that have ingredients that provide a lot of nutritional value including salads, wraps, smoothies, and desserts.
Healthy Living for Kids and Teens
Brianna
McGrath, Toms River
Brianna's Silver Award Take Action Project, “Healthy Living for Kids and Teens,” consists of a YouTube channel and a website. The YouTube channel contains many easy, affordable, and healthy recipe videos, while the website includes the full recipes from the YouTube channel, as well as articles about nutrition and physical activity. Brianna's goal was to encourage children and teens in her community to live healthy lives by eating healthy and exercising.
Healthy Eating 101
Sofia Gonzales-Trelles,
Brick
Sofia’s Silver Award project consisted of workshops educating students about healthy eating as well as improving the greenhouse at Lake Riviera Middle School using solar-powered climate control (radiant floors), a solar-powered drip irrigation system, and a solar-powered automated composter. This made a difference because the greenhouse encourages healthy eating habits in tandem with the workshop, to teach the students about making good choices in their eating habits. These newly learned habits were aimed to influence positive habits promoting good health. This knowledge empowers students to apply it daily throughout their lives to wisely choose their food options.
Helping History
Ella Wilmott, Point
Pleasant
Ella’s Silver Award project consisted of cleaning cemetery stones and adding additions to an online website catalog of photos of the headstones. She worked at Harmony Cemetery in Jackson where 6 generations of her ancestors are buried. She first went through the listing of the names from the website and made a list of all that did not have a photo of their stone. Then, through many trips, she walked the entire cemetery to find as many names as possible and took photos of those she could locate. She emailed many family and friends from the area to get permission to clean their ancestors’ stones. She researched how to properly clean the stones without damaging them and went to work. This project allowed her to provide service to her community and to help preserve historical information for the public to use.
History in a Box
Hope Collins, Little Egg
Harbor and Riley Martin, New Gretna
Hope and Riley worked and researched together for their Silver Award project “History in a Box”. These boxes are filled with books and educational resources on famous women in history. The purpose of this project was to put a stronger emphasis on women in history in the classroom setting, and to empower young girls to achieve their own goals. Through their project, local schools received boxes filled with articles and books about women such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sojourner Truth, Frida Kahlo, and Susan B. Anthony. These boxes are also filled with age-appropriate crafts and literature for the grades in each school.
How to Make Face Masks
Meera Patel,
Morganville
Meera organized and worked with her team to address the facemask shortage for hospital workers at the start of the Coronavirus pandemic. She donated masks to RWJ nurses and staff who were in dire need for supplies and went on to make masks for elderly people and others in her community. She created a flyer on how to make masks at home and shared it with sporting facilities, dance studios, various community boards, and social media sites. She is proud to have made such a contribution to society in these difficult times.
Kindness Silver Boxes
Kylie Ballin, West
Creek and Anna Skelly, Little Egg Harbor
The main purpose of Anna and Kylie’s Silver Award Take Action Project, “Kindness Silver Boxes,” was to spread kindness throughout the community. Anna and Kylie believed that words should be little gifts, given freely to one another. The girls spread kindness around through their Kindness Silver Boxes and a kind word Scavenger Hunt where they encouraged others to speak, think, and act kindly. They made signs with kind words on them and hid them throughout their community. They also made a Girl Scout Patch Program where girls had to complete different steps to help spread kindness in order to earn the fun patch. For the last part of their project, they made an Elementary school program where they made a silver box with the kids who had to give it away to someone they care about.
Little Free Libraries of the Jersey Shore
Guliana Caparaso and Grace Rhine, Toms River
Grace Rhine and Guliana Caparaso earned their Girl Scout Silver Award with their project, “Little Free Libraries of the Jersey Shore.” They built two little free libraries and placed them around their community. The impact of their Little Free Library is that it provides access to books anytime for anyone. People who pass by can take a book, or even leave one for some else to read. During the Covid crisis, everything was closed, libraries, stores, etc, and there was not easy access to books. This project helped to alleviate this problem and gave people something positive to do.
Mask Awareness
Lauren Dong, Howell
Lauren's Silver Award Take Action project, “Mask Awareness,” was done at the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. For her Silver Award, she made masks and created a website with information about the benefits of wearing masks and reasons why we should wear them in the COVID-19 pandemic. The site also features a tutorial where Lauren shows how to make masks. For each mask that she gave away, she put information about the importance of masks and the website where they could get more information on how to make them. She was able to convey her message to the community such as church groups, college students and special needs kids, who didn’t want to wear masks. She also made a trip to the Ronald McDonald House to distribute masks.
Mask Up For Each Other
Natasha Castro, Little
Egg Harbor
For Natasha’s Silver Award Project, "Mask up!" she sewed home-made masks and donated them to nurses, friends, family and local stores. She did this because at the time, COVIDd-19 started, and she saw that masks were not available. Her family would be at risk for the pandemic, and she also loved to sew, so she researched how to sew masks and started making them. She received donations from local Girl Scouts, and she virtually taught how to make masks. She was able to make over 100 masks and give them all out. She also created a pamphlet to ensure proper hand washing as well as how to make and take care of their mask.
Organic Garden
Angelina Santapaola, Aberdeen
For her Girl Scout Silver Award project, Angelina built and created
a vegetable and herb garden for the children at Beacon Academy School.
This garden has different raised beds filled with vegetables such as
tomatoes, cucumbers, potatoes, peppers, garlic, onion, and herbs as
well. Angelina organized the vegetable and herb garden by painting
rocks to act as signs of which vegetable or herb is where. This garden
will allow children to view how plants grow and become experienced
with growing their own food. The vegetables they grow in this garden
will be organic and healthy rather than the store-bought vegetables
filled with harmful chemicals and pesticides. The garden aims to teach
kids to not be wasteful as many leftovers from the kitchen can be used
as fertilizer in gardens instead of being thrown away. Not only will
this garden provide health benefits for these children, but they can
have fun working side by side tending to the garden and seeing what
their own hard work can produce.
Preserving New Jersey's Monarch Butterfly Species and Enjoying
their Beauty
Devin Coleman, Port Monmouth
For her Silver Award project, Devin chose a conversation-minded project to help preserve New Jersey’s Monarch Butterfly species, which is in danger of extinction. She ordered and assembled butterfly houses and painting kits, while recruiting assistance from her community to help her. She then went to speak to Kindergarteners at St. Mary’s School about her project. Upon completion of the houses, Devin planted Milkweed bush on the St. Mary School grounds to attract butterfly egg laying. The butterfly houses were installed in surrounding trees as habitats for protection. Devin thanks all of her helpers tremendously, from the youngest being six and two senior helpers at the age of 91.
Puppet Power
Emily Cushing, Toms River; Sienna
Henninger, Beachwood; Mallory Higham and Cali Krean, Pine
Beach
Emily, Sienna, Mallory, and Cali worked together for their Silver Award project. Their project is a great example for hands-on learning for local elementary schools, who have agreed to support the troop and were very excited to receive the puppet booths! The girls built the base of the three puppet booths out of heavy-duty wood, so they would last longer. The girls then sanded, glued, taped, and painted the booths the color of each elementary school. The girls added the decorations/storage to help the puppet booths flourish once they are being used in the schools. The girls also crafted reusable and fun puppets that will last a long time and have supplied materials for students to dive into their creativity and create new puppets.
Raising Heart Worm Awareness
Virginia Foulks,
Howell
Virginia (Ginny) worked with Wag On Inn animal rescue to help spread the word about their organization, heartworm, and host a drive for pet supplies to create new foster/adopter kits. Ginny also educated the community about heartworm by hosting an educational event at PetValu in Shrewsbury. After adopting a dog with heartworm and learning how many dogs aren’t adopted because of heartworm, she hopes to help connect dogs with their forever families by dispelling those worries through educating her community.
ReRead, ReBook, ReImagine
Leena Mirchandani,
Wall Township
Leena is a Girl Scout reader, leader, and dreamer who realized a need for books in her community and was heartbroken to find out that some children didn’t even have one book to call their own. Leena took action by initiating her “ReRead, ReBook, ReImagine,” Silver Award Take Action Project where she aimed to increase access to books and interest in reading. Through innovative and socially distant initiatives, she collected almost 3,000 books, making it a point to search for those that were bilingual, multicultural, and diverse. Many of these books were included in a Little Free Library that she created in conjunction with her local Habitat for Humanity. She also created a series of both in person and virtual book drives and engaging “book talk” videos.
Sensory Project for Lincroft Elementary School
Emily DeMarco, Amanda Moore, and Kirsten Prefer, Middletown
Amanda, Emily, and Kirsten earned their Silver Award, “Sensory Project for Lincroft Elementary School,” as a group. Their project consisted of crafting assorted sensory toys for students having difficulties focusing in class. The girls also constructed sensory tents for the students to be able to step away and not disturb the class while the child recomposes themselves. This helped the school environment by allowing the teachers as well as the students have a more productive learning experience. For example, the teachers were able to continue to instruct the class without have interruptions while still being able to monitor their students.
September Girl Scout Camp
Charlotte Coggshall,
Bella Gesell, Nyla Martin, and Lauryn Smith, Rumson
Bella, Nyla, Lauryn and Charlotte worked on their Silver Award project together to create a week-long Girl Scout Adventure Camp. This camp addressed the need for a town recreation program during the extended summer break in Rumson. With the school still under construction during a time that students would normally have attended school, these Cadettes wanted to help local families by providing entertainment for a couple hours each morning. They worked closely with the Rumson Recreation Director to create this camp for girls in grades 1-3. They each independently created and led a portion of the camp: ice breakers/team building, arts and crafts, nature, and sports/outdoor games. They brought all sections together and supported each other to run the Girl Scout Adventure Camp. Over twenty girls attended the camp, and it was a huge success!
Supporting the Ronald McDonald House of Long Branch
Lillianna Miles, Wall
Lillianna Miles earned her Silver Award, “Supporting the Ronald McDonald House of Long Branch,” by supporting the Ronald McDonald House with her Can Tab Weighing Station. Lillianna is an advocate for saving can tabs and has spoken at several meetings and to groups throughout the community including Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, PTA meetings, sorority alumni meetings, as well as at church and at school, to encourage saving can tabs. Lillianna built a weighing station for people to get a visual understanding of how many can tabs are needed to make one pound. The Ronald McDonald House recycles the can tabs and uses that money to help cover the utilities of running the house, so that the families staying at RMH can focus on their child in the hospital. Lillianna also created a commercial to share with the groups that she has spoken with, so that the information continues to be available. Lillianna has collected and donated over 100 pounds of can tabs and has also purchased and donated several items on the Ronald McDonald House Wishlist to build their outdoor play area for the siblings of the hospitalized children.
Why Releasing Balloons is a Bad Idea
Emily
Farrell, Brick
Emily’s Silver Award Project, “Why Releasing Balloons is a Bad Idea,” addressed the problems of balloons and the impact of balloons being let go into the environment. This project brought awareness to other troops and other people on the environmental boards of Brick and Point Pleasant. Balloons are very dangerous to the environment, killing animals, creating surplus amount of pollution and can kill off multiple species and mess up the food chain. Since advocating about this, her town added a sentence to their special events permits, block party permits, and all permits and activities through the Recreation department. The township Public Works Committee is considering the formal ordinance banning the intentional or accidental release but has had delays due to Covid-19.
Award Deadline: Final reports must be submitted no later than September 30 of a girl's ninth grade year.
Hour Requirement for the Award: Each girl must log 50 hours to earn the award. This includes research, planning, taking action, and completing the final report.
Troop leaders, parents, and adult volunteers take Silver Award training to learn how to guide girls through a successful Silver Award project. Register for an in-person Silver Award Workshop to get started. Contact us if you have questions or need assistance.
Girls are ready for their Silver Award when:
These steps provide a brief description of the Silver Award process and are covered more in depth in training.
Troops funds: Girls can use troop funds for Silver Award Take Action projects. Leaders create a letter for girls to sign indicating that all girls in the troop agree to use troop funds.
Money earning: Troops who have participated in both the Fall Product Program and the Girl Scout Cookie Program can plan a money-earning project (like a bake sale, rummage sale, holiday gift wrap station, etc.) to fund their Silver Award Take Action project. See “Money-Earning Projects” in Volunteer Essentials, Chapter 5: Troop Finances to learn more.
We’re happy to help! with questions or to discuss a Silver Award Project idea before girls get going.
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