By Sue Moore
Five Vicksburg students, Girl Scouts working on their organization’s top Gold Award, are raising funds for service projects and travel.
The five, members of Troop 80809, are planning a garage sale during the Old Car Festival Saturday, June 11. First, they’re looking for donations of items to sell.
The girls are Vicksburg High juniors Paryn Norman, Julie Gettle, and Amanda Munn, in scouting since kindergarten, plus Vickburg High sophomore Emmaline Miller and home-schooler Sage Moser.
Girl Scouting’s Gold Award is similar to the Boy Scouts’ Eagle Award.
The garage sale is planned at the Munn’s home at 215 Wayland Street just off Silver Street in Vicksburg by the Shell Station.
The girls collectively don’t have a lot of garage sale items to make the kind of money they need for each to take home $100 to $400 in sales. They are asking the community to donate items to their sale. They are offering to pick up anything during the next month that donors are willing to part with. A call to Paryn Norman at 649-2306 should get the job done quickly.
Norman, Gettle and Munn are making a trip to the Caribbean as part of their Gold Award project, a project the troop has saved for since the girls were in middle school. Scouting encourages multi-cultural experiences so scouts have more understanding and compassion for other nations and cultures. Part of the Girl Scout code is to “make the world a better place.”
Their cruise from Port Canaveral, Fla. will take them to Mexico, Jamaica, Haiti, and Grand Cayman. The troop is helping them finance the trip but each girl needs to kick in another $300 to $400 for travel expenses. Their travel includes a stop in Tampa to do a service project at a county park. The girls have been responsible for budgeting, their itinerary and obtaining passports as well as raising their own money.
The girls entered scouting as Daisy Scouts, then progressed to Ambassador Scouts, the next level to Gold. The basic requirements for a project to achieve the Gold Award include:
• A minimum of 80 hours of service for a non-profit, or government organization in the community–but not for a scouting project.
• It must be sustainable. The benefit must continue after the project is complete.
• It must have a definable beginning and end.
• It should have 20-40 hours contributed by other volunteers–helpers.
• It should begin with the end in mind.
• Financing (fundraising) cannot ac count for more than 20% of the hours.
Each girl chooses a project to complete by the time she is 18 and off to her first semester in college. Munn has decided to make knotted blankets to donate to a homeless shelter. Norman is planning on her project benefiting the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA) of Southwest Michigan, where she volunteers regularly. Miller has plans to clean out the storage space for costumes at the high school since she has been involved in many stage productions at the Performing Arts Center. She will take pictures of the props and inventory the many clothing items stored in the room. Gettle is talking with South County Community Services but is still deciding on her project. Moser’s project will benefit MusiCares, a group that helps struggling musicians.
The troop is also getting help from Jaspare’s on Sprinkle Road. It’s donating a portion of its sales all day Sunday, May 22, to Troop 80809.