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Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania is honored to present the members of Troop 58125 with the Girl Scout Bronze Award, the highest recognition for achievement in Girl Scouting for girls in grades 4-5.

The Bronze Award recognizes Girl Scouts who demonstrate extraordinary leadership through sustainable and measurable ‘take action’ projects that address important community needs. Members of the troop include Makenna Benjamin, Morgan Dixon, Kaylee Hopkins, Abigail Ignaczak, Sophia Lewis, Celia Mather, Josiah Moore, Kiara Patel, Madeline Potts and Belle Snyder.

The Troop's Bronze Award project began October 13, 2016 and was completed May 25, 2017.
When the girls discovered they had a strong desire to help both children their age that may be struggling financially, they developed two separate plans to address the issues’ root causes.

For the first part of their project, the girls approached their elementary school principals, the Pleasant Hills borough, and the local organization Play It Forward. They crafted a letter and received permission from the school principals to email all of the families represented at two of the local elementary schools, McClellan Elementary and Jefferson Elementary, asking for toy donations. With permission, the Pleasant Hills borough building became a drop-off center for toy donations from both Jefferson Hills and Pleasant Hills families.
After a two-week period, the girls were able to drop off six car loads of toys, ranging from a new Wii to loads of Legos. Then, they assisted the team at Play It Forward by organizing, separating and getting the toys ready at the Convention Center in downtown Pittsburgh for their big toy donation event. The troop was supported in their Bronze Award effort by troop leader, Lisa Hopkins; troop co-leader Kerry Patel; elementary school principals Mr. Justin Liberatore and Mr. Christopher Very; and Pleasant Hills Borough Manager Deborah Englert.

For the second part of their project, the girls took an active leadership role in planning, organizing and completing an Earth Day clean-up project. They independently solicited local hardware stores for the needed supplies, researched places in the community that required cleanup, and actively sought out participants. While they were in the process of selecting a date, the Jefferson Hills borough created their own cleanup day, so the girls used all of their skills and knowledge learned as a resource and opted to perform their cleanup as participants in the Jefferson Hills borough cleanup event rather than creating a new, competing event. The Jefferson Hills mayor, Janice Cmar, greeted them with open arms to join in the Jefferson Hills borough Earth Day Cleanup event.

The members of Troop 58125 used their strengths, talents, and skills and put their plan into action to earn the Bronze Award while each taking a leadership role.

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