So, what is a Silver Award? It's the highest award at the Cadette tier of Girl Scouting. Only the Gold Award is higher (roughly the equivalent of the Boy Scout's Eagle). The Bronze Award (which she earned as a Junior Girl Scout) and the Silver are intended to be stepping stones toward the Gold, and are excellent experiences in their own right for building confidence, leadership, and for providing service.
Sarah has been working toward this award for two years. She had numerous preliminary steps to fulfill, including earning certain badges, attending leadership and career-building workshops, and performing leadership activities within our group. The final, culminating step is that of choosing, planning, and carrying out a 40-hour service project.
The choosing part was easier said than done. Sarah's initial desire was to do something to promote literacy. She came up with several ideas, but kept hitting stumbling blocks with groups she tried to work with, dates that weren't convenient, and ideas that just never seemed to take form. Finally, after months of frustration and nearly giving up, the opportunity arose to provide a workshop for some younger scouts. Looking through the Girl Scout badge books, she found a Prints and Graphics badge, and realized she could provide an art opportunity for girls that they're not apt to get in school. What better project for an art student than to share her expertise in art with girls who might not have that exposure?
Sarah chose a September date for her workshop, in coordination with an upcoming Fall Campout. Sarah would be the sole provider of an organized activity for troops to attend. No pressure! The September date gave her the leisure of having the summer to plan, organize, and prepare for her project. At first, that seemed like a tremendous amount of time. She soon learned, though, what a lot of work it is to put such an event together! Early on, I remember her comment that there were so many little details to have to take care of. I advised her to just take them one step at a time, and that, in the end, it would all come together.
Once she found her workshop topic, she had to choose the activities to teach the girls relating to prints and graphics. She decided to do nature rubbings and ink printing; to have the girls make their own sponge prints, and print with them onto bags that would then hold their projects; to teach them to design, cut, and use stencils; and to teach the process of making foam prints.
Next, she gathered potential materials and tried each project, looking for simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and feasibility of completion within a 20-minute time frame - necessary to hold this age group's attention and to keep them moving along from one station to another within the allotted time frame. She tweaked the activities and morphed them until they worked the way she needed them to. She also kept in mind the need to stay within budget, use as many materials as we already had, and recycle/reuse materials as much as possible.
Now that she had her activities chosen, she needed help to man the stations and teach the girls the skills . She tried recruiting from our Girl Scout troop, but it seemed that everyone was busy that day, so she turned to her classmates at ACMA. She was able to convince three friends, Christy, Naomi, and Nicole, to help her out, and, together with Emily, had just enough leaders for the four stations she planned to have the participants rotate through. She wrote out meticulous instructions and step-by-step procedures for each activity, then held a training session and taught her helpers the activities so they could teach the girls.
All the while, she was staying in touch with the chair of our Girl Scout Service Unit, who was organizing the Fall Campout where Sarah's event would be held. She constantly communicated her plans, got answers to her questions, and bounced ideas off of Mary. Sarah drew up a registration form and sent it to the troop leaders asking them to sign their troops up for the workshop. She crossed her fingers and hoped she'd have participants!
By now, school was back in session, and time was at a premium. She was quite glad so much of her plan time was in the summer, as it became obvious that the final preparations were taking up precious time needed for studying and doing homework. Those first two weeks of school were pretty busy, but she pulled it off. She shopped for supplies, prepped and organized them into "kits" for each station; accepted registrations (yeah!) and confirmed them with the troop leaders; ordered and picked up the badges and organized them into troop sets; typed up a check-in sheet for troops upon arrival; arranged transportation and lunch for her helpers at the workshop; and a million other small things that came up at the last minute.
Finally, the date arrived, and we set off for Camp Namanu, an hour's drive from home. The weather was dreary, rainy and cold, but our adrenaline was pretty high just to see all Sarah's efforts finally pay off. We had lunch, then set up the area for the workshop. Sarah was a very effective leader, overseeing each of her helper's efforts and making sure everything was ready at the appointed time.
At last, the troops arrived, and reality hit: this is it. Sarah talked to the participants, explaining what they'd be doing and how it would work, and the workshop began.
As the girls became absorbed in their art projects, Sarah turned to me and said, "This is pretty cool. They're doing all the work for me!" I reminded her of all the efforts she'd put forth to get to this point, and that the mark of a good leader is to be organized and to be able to delegate.
Ninety minutes later, we had a room full of happy girls and colorful artwork laying out to dry.
Sarah's hard work had paid off, and it was a win-win situation: the girls learned some new skills, the leaders were able to offer their troop members a badge without planning it themselves, Sarah's helpers earned some service hours, and Sarah gained confidence and a lot of leadership experience - as well as earning her award.
When it was all said and done, we looked back over the past year of planning and preparation. There were certainly moments when she'd wanted to quit, when I'd wanted to throttle her, when she doubted her ability to pull it off, and when things just weren't going as planned. I asked Sarah if it was worth it. She admitted that, despite the moments of frustration, she felt she'd grown as a result of the experience. She's always been ultra-organized, but she now feels like she is a better leader and came a long way in terms of communication skills, as well. I couldn't agree more.
Congratulations, Sarah! I'm proud of you!
