Girls Making A Difference To Kids In Hospitals

Last week, had a welcome half-day to start the Memorial Day weekend. It was warm and sunny and there were children jumping on trampolines, riding bikes and splashing in pools.

But this fun was not for the Junior Girl Scout Troops from and . Nope, these young ladies used that half-day to think of others and do a service project that would allow them to receive the Bronze Award pin.

According to the Girl Scouts of America website, the Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest honor a Junior Girl Scout can earn. It gives girls a chance to learn the leadership and planning skills necessary to follow through on a community leadership project. Working toward this award demonstrates commitment to helping others, improving their community and their world and becoming the best they can be.

So these girls decided to make nearly 100 gift bags filled with activities to keep other kids busy while they are in the hospital. They chose Northwest Community Hospital as their beneficiary.

The eight girls in the Country Meadows troop, Lauren Appell, Katie Chiasson, Sophia Connolly, Jessica Lackey, Isabel Lee, Elese Kirby, Maura Kelleher and Natalie Mun, teamed up with two girls from the Kildeer troop and each threesome was responsible for making a dozen gift bags. For two hours, they decorated bags, wrote get-well cards and sorted the gift-bag items.

"It is an incredible feeling to think I can make a difference in someone's life," Lauren Appell said.

Her mom and troop leader, Pam Appell, said, "The Girl Scouts in my troop are amazing. We spent the last year talking about what they wanted to do for their Bronze Award and this was the project they chose. They were very active in each step. They went shopping and selected the nearly 400 items for the 100 gift bags. Then on Friday, they each led their team in assembling the bags to make a nice gift for a child who has just checked into Northwest Community Hospital. Each girl will be delivering her dozen gift bags to the hospital over the next few months. I am so proud of them. They have really learned they can work together to make a difference."

"It was nice to do something fun that helped other people," troop member Maura Kelleher said.

Isabel Lee added, "I am glad to serve our community by helping kids in need." 

The Junior Girl Scouts from Kildeer that attended the event included: Allison Chen, Annie Coghlan, Stephanie Eggars, Caylee Fournier, Claire Haas, Ryan Johnson, Rachel McCoy, Taylor Morris, Alyssa Mussar, Anisha Rao, Nisha Sen-Gupta, Gina Shanley, Veronia Sobhy, Abby Starr, Veda Teich and Laura Szczepanski.

As always, email me with any news, topics or ideas that you want to read about. Remember, I’d like to be the first to know! I can be reached at laurenbgpatch@aol.com.