Girl Scout Troop receives Bronze Award
Six members of Girl Scout Troop 90007 received one of the organization’s highest honors recently by earning the Girl Scouts Bronze Award.
Haley Allen-Johnson, Renee Clougherty, Violet McLeod, Chloe Slagle, Petra Stuck, and Lily Zimmerman earned the award by providing Blessing Bags to the homeless. The project was completed Sept. 17.
Katie Zimmerman, a leader with Girl Scout Troop 90007, thanked the Upper St. Clair community for supporting the project with donations to homeless supply drives from May through July. The project’s goal was to provide Blessing Bags to the homeless in camps and shelters in the downtown Pittsburgh area.
Once donations were collected, the Girl Scouts sorted and inventoried all items for their Blessing Bag assembly event. They partnered with the Upper St. Clair Girl Scout Service Unit for a registration/renewal event.
Community members included current and returning Girl Scouts, potential new members, friends and family.
Approximately 50 people attended and helped assemble the bags. The Girl Scouts also served refreshments and organized a “field day” type event with games, songs and crafts.
Blessing Bags items included toiletries, food, water, and a note with a kind message in each bag.
The Girl Scouts also partnered with Randi Fowler, a retired Pittsburgh police officer and Upper St. Clair resident who visits the camps regularly and distributes donations and essential items. The Scouts were able to provide Fowler with 100 Blessing Bags, Giant Eagle gift cards and supply donations for dogs in camps.
Shepherd’s Heart Fellowship in downtown Pittsburgh also received 65 Blessing Bags. After a meal service, the Girl Scouts passed out the bags to those in attendance. The troop was also able to make a monetary donation as well as donate bedding items and blankets, boots, shoes, toiletries, canned goods, and other miscellaneous items received from supply drives.
Zimmerman said the Girl Scouts in the troop each took on a leadership role where they worked individually as well as a team on project planning and Take Action items to make a positive, sustainable impact in the community. Each Girl Scout earned at least 20 hours of community service for the project. “Together, they accomplished the Girl Scout’s mission of developing courage, confidence, and character to make the world a better place,” she said.