Girl Scouts Make Special Delivery to Children's Hospital

On Thursday, July 27th, 8 Girl Scouts from Brewster's troop #1541 brought some smiles and comfort to the children at the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital and parents staying at the Ronald McDonald House in Valhalla. In hopes of giving some comfort and strength to these parents and children, troop #1541 created and delivered 100 gift bags. This was all part of their Silver Award. These 8 girls have spent the last 6 months working on their Silver Award projects. This Award is the highest award that a Girl Scouts Cadette may earn. It is an intense project that allows the girls the chance to show many skills including organization, leadership, and fundraising while aiding people in the community.

Troop 1541 is comprised of 8 girls. A maximum of 4 girls is allowed to work on a Silver Award together. The girls were split into two groups which meant two projects. One group took it upon themselves to create gift bags to give to the parents who have a child that is living at the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital. These parents are unable or unwilling to leave their child and to go home. Many of them sleep at the hospital in a room with their child or sleep at the Ronald McDonald House. These parents don't have basic necessities with them. The girls in this group started the "A Little Ray of Sunshine" project where they created bags of necessities for these parents. The bags contained basic items such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, deodorant, shampoo, shaving cream, razors, lotion, lip balm, and socks as well as a notebook and pen. The girls in the "A Little Ray of Sunshine" group also ran workshops where they taught other Girl Scouts how to create lavender sachets and frames with encouraging quotes in them. These items were added to the gift bags with the hope of bringing some more comfort to the parents.

The second group of girls had their Silver Award project focus on the children at the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital. They created 50 gift bags in total that will be handed out to all different ages of children. These girls spent the last several months collecting items for the gift bags such as, crayons, coloring books, puzzles, bracelets, socks, Barbie dolls, and other toys. This group also created a "Well Wishes" jar and asked children and adults in the community to write a message of encouragement for the children. The "Well Wishes" container is now displayed in the hospital. Any child may walk by and pull out a "well wish" - a note of encouragement to help them through their day.

According to the Silver Award guidelines, each girl needed to spend at least 50 hours working on these projects. The girls of Troop #1541 went above and beyond the 50 hours each! They didn't just help out with their own project. In the true spirit of Girl Scouts and friendship, each of these girls spent many additional hours helping out the other team of girls. Each girl spent time visualizing, organizing, and implementing at least one fundraiser and one workshop where they brought together a group of children and taught them how to create a craft. The girls of troop #1541 have all succeeded in the creation and implementation of a huge community service project. 

Troop #1541 would like to give a special thanks to all of the companies and organizations that helped them to achieve their goals. Thank you to: Brewster Girl Scouts Organization, Our Hearts Well, the Ronald McDonald House of Valhalla, the Maria Fareri Children's Hospital, Kobacker's Market, Dollar Tree in Patterson, Brewster Elks Club, Relay for Life (in Brewster and in Patterson), St. Lawrence O'Toole Early Childhood Learning Center, Brewster Farmer's Market, and Foster Kids Unite inc. Without these wonderful organizations and the people involved in them, these girls would not have been able to complete these projects within the last 6 months.