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Girl Scout Troop 70411 Achieves Gold

By Hope Beyer
Robbinsville, NJ, August 16, 2014:  Seven girls from Allentown-Robbinsville Girl Scout Service Unit of the Girl Scouts of Central and Southern New Jersey are currently working on their Gold Award projects.  The Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can achieve and represents her leadership skills, desire to help the community, and dedication to her cause.  Each girl created, organized and executed her project on her own.  A minimum of 80 service hours are required as well as a sustainability component meaning that the project must endure after they have completed the initial set-up.  The Robbinsville High School juniors addressed a variety of community issues. 
Courtney Allen’s project, “Confidence is Contagious”, helped girls’ self-esteem through a lacrosse clinic in Hightstown. Jessica Allen’s project, “Much Needed Relief”, is helping social workers at Children’s Home Society manage their stress of their jobs, and refurbishing a doll house that is used for children’s play therapy.  Hope Beyer’s project, entitled “Art from the Heart”, helped multiply disabled students at The Academy Learning Center in Monroe express themselves through art projects using their hands, including a mural at the schools entrance that will continue to inspire them.  Alexis Cettina’s Gold Award, “Just Imagine…”, is giving underprivileged children at the Agape House, located in Somerville, NJ, the opportunity to use their imagination by providing a playhouse setting and costumes.  Samantha Deck has created a garden at HomeFront to help teach children about growing and maintaining and eating their vegetables and herbs in her project entitled, “Garden of Hope”.   Ria Desi-Patel, also working with HomeFront, is teaching children about different places and cultures around the world with her project “It’s a Small World”.  Sydney Holgado’s project, “Sharing Music Among All Ages”, has been focusing on working with the young and old to ensure the cultural significance of music is not lost by introducing youth performances in local rehabilitation centers and nursing homes. 
The girls (pictured above from left to right: Hope Beyer, Jessica Allen, Alexis Cettina, Samantha Deck, Courtney Allen, Ria Desi-Patel, and troop Leader Vicki Beyer, not pictured: Sydney Holgado) have been together as a troop since kindergarten.  Having all seven complete their Gold Award is an achievement in and of itself. 
The projects are require to continue to after the girls have gone.  To find out how you can help sustain these projects, you may contact them at [email protected]