Gold, silver, and bronze awards were received by West Windsor-Plainsboro Girl Scouts at a Court of Awards ceremony on November 18.##M:[more]##
Jennifer Bradley, Anna O’Connell, and Christina Sibley received Gold Awards, the highest award in Girl Scouting. The senior level award requires completion of badges, community service, leadership activities, and career exploration, as well as planning and performing a major project for the community.
Bradley’s project, “Creativity in the Outdoors,” included an overnight Girl Scout campout for more than 100, as well as a camping cookbook. A member of Troop 149, she is a student at High School North. Her leaders are Andrea Mandel and Stephanie Bradley.
O’Connell’s project, “Girl Scouts: Singing and Scouting Together,” included the creation of a choir of Cadette and Senior scouts to sing at award ceremonies. With the assistance of Brownie troops, they recorded a CD of songs.
Sibley organized a trip for 98 scouts and leaders to the 95th anniversary of Girl Scouting in Washington, D.C., and provided a night tour of famous monuments. Her project is “Celebration at the Capital.” Both O’Connell and Sibley are members of Troop 1413, led by Maria Fischer and Barbara O’Connell. They are both students at High School South.
Kimberly Clifton and Emily Straley received Silver Awards, the highest award at the Cadette level.
Clifton is a member of Troop 1018, led by Anne Clifton and Ana Dhulekar. Her project, “Women and Leadership,” helped pregnant women in the Children’s Home Society of NJ and created leadership badge workshops for Junior Girl Scouts.
Straley is a member of Troop 1984, led by Trish Baker and Linda Dowling. Her project, “Giving Back Fun,” including collecting and donating more than 150 new and used board games for children’s programs, including the Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia.
Girl Scouts in four troops earned the Bronze Award, the highest level for Junior Girl Scouts in the sixth or seventh grade, by performing group projects. Each girl must still complete individual prerequisites and contribute at least 15 hours to the project.
Troop 208, led by Gina Armstrong and Pat Helck, did a men’s clothing drive for the Trenton Soup Kitchen. Raveeja Deshpande, Ambika Gaur, Elizabeth Helck, Catherine Peters, Anisha Kapoor, Deja Robinson, Ivy Kang, and Shweta Ravichandar received awards. Victoria Armstrong and Sanjana Phatak received awards for the project “A Little Reading, A Lot of Fun,” a reading program for younger scouts.
Troop 600, led by Carry Bloom and Kate Henkel, received awards for work at the Rogers Preserve in West Windsor including blazing and cleaning trails and making sign posts. Aana Bansai, Carly Bloom, Allison Camaratta, Marilyn Can, RaeLynn Chapman, Natasha Hanstveit, Dani Henkel, Katie Henkel, Rachel Karp, and Amani Saeed received awards.
Troop 676, with leaders Lynn Mahmood and Melissa Magid, also performed two separate projects. Receiving the Bronze Award for making “Happy Sock” catnip toy socks for the local SAVE animal shelter were Nikita Deshpande, Morgan Magid, Sarah Maher, Sara Mahmood, Avani Pai, Naini Sahrawat, and Julia Tampelini. Mona Agarwal, Jessica Bizenov, Brianna Crichton, Lauren McTigue, and Ramya Rajagopal collected and donated books to children’s hospitals.
Troop 1500, led by Elizabeth Carnevale, Lori Derman, and Wendy Kramer, collected books, games, and bookcases for Home Front. Emily Carnevale, Sarah Derman, Rebecca Finnie, Laura Foster, Sarah Hagen, Maya Kaisth, Emily Kramer, Charlotte Mendes, Tiffany Rodriguez, and Elianna Wydra received awards.
Area leaders at the event included Senator Peter Inverso, Assemblywoman Linda Greenstein, Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes, West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, Plainsboro Deputy Mayor Neil Lewis, Community Middle School Principal Arthur Downs, and Tannya Hemingway from Girl Scouts of Central and Southern.
Girl Scouting is for girls from kindergarten through twelfth grade. For information about joining or becoming a leader call Louisa Ho at 609-371-2119 or send an E-mail to girlscoutswwp@verizon.net.
