The members of Junior Troop 80417 aren’t just Girl Scouts — they’re documentarians as well.
The girls, in honor of the 100th year of Girl Scouting, worked on a film in which they interviewed former Girl Scouts, from young adults to 92 years old. For their efforts, they won the Girl Scout Bronze Award, the highest award for Girl Scouts at the Junior level, for girls ages 10 and 11.
“The girls did all their own research and interviewing and learned so much about the 100 years of the organization and why it is still around and flourishing,” said Bronze Award adviser Jana Siciliano, whose daughter Julia Memory is a member of the troop. Germaine Wyetzner leads the troop.
Siciliano, a filmmaker, screenwriter and writing teacher, came up with the idea for the project.
“I wanted to share my interests with the girls, so I devised the project, shot all the interviews, and my husband, Bill Memory, and my daughter, Julia Memory, edited it,” she said. “My husband was a professional film editor so that was helpful! The girls learned the process of preparing an edit on paper, but we did the actual editing, and they approved each of their interviews before the final cut.”
Siciliano said she and radio host Maggie Glynn helped the girls practice before their interviews, and the girls also used the archives at the Metuchen-Edison Historical Society for research. She said the interviewees, who include borough-based attorney Susan Schleck Kleiner, all had interesting stories to tell.
“Some girls even interviewed their teachers and family members, learning about how different cookie sales were run and how many new projects our girls get to do that did not exist in the past, like the Bronze, Silver and Gold awards,” Siciliano said. “They also found out that camping hasn’t changed. Everyone still learns the same skills!”
And the Bronze Award recognizes not only the hard work that went into the project, but also how the girls have grown through the process, she said.
“The Bronze Award shows their burgeoning leadership skills and their ability to put a plan in motion and see it through,” Siciliano said, explaining that the girls had to earn a Junior Journey award first, which they won the year prior following a fundraising project for Japanese earthquake victims. The mayors of both Edison and Metuchen also recognized the girls. The film debuted April 21 at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, and the troop recently presented an archive copy of the film to the Metuchen-Edison Historical Society. The film and more than 25 hours of raw footage will be housed at the Metuchen Public Library as well as at the archives at the Girl Scouts of Central and Southern New Jersey, headquartered in Cherry Hill. It also is slated to be available via the Girl Scout YouTube page.
“Many people think of the historical society for its collection of photographs, maps, books, etc., but it is really work done through projects like this that make our collections unique and invaluable,” said Tyreen Reuter of the historical society. “Not only is it the stories of the older women that were interviewed, but of the young Scouts themselves that are so wonderful. We have oral histories from the ’70s onward that were done with area residents and they are priceless.
“It is great to have a photograph of a building or group of people, but the social history of what it was like to live here at various points in time is the truly precious thing,” she added. “Plus, a project like this that pairs different generations goes a long way to building respect between the two.”