Emily Straley, 14, a freshman at High School North, has had a busy year since last December when her family vowed to do new and different things this year. Straley earned her Girl Scout Silver Award and will be honored at an awards ceremony on Sunday, November 18. On Thanksgiving Day she and her parents will be taking part in the Thanksgiving parade in Philadelphia.##M:[more]##
A Girl Scout since first grade, Straley is a Juliette Girl Scout not associated with a troop, in the West Windsor-Plainsboro Service Unit. Her project, “Giving Back Fun,” focused on a collection of more than 150 new and used board games. After reading the request for games in the WW-P Community Education Extended Day Program bulletin, she set up a meeting with Marcie Rubin, the director of community education. Straley was in the EDP program from first through eighth grades and spent two summers working with special education and disabled students in second through sixth grades at Millstone River as a peer group leader helping with math, spelling, and reading.
Her parents, Kathy and Perry Straley, have lived in Plainsboro for 21 years. Her parents worked and lived in northern New Jersey previously. When Kathy’s company was planning a move to the Princeton area, they offered her an accounting job in the new location. She was not planning the move until it took her more than three hours to go from Paramus to Little Ferry during a Bruce Springsteen concert in the area. She later worked for Princeton Packet and is now with account receivables at Hill Wallack in Carnegie Center. Perry is the assistant facilities manager for Jasna Polana.
“Emily knew first hand how the program works and saw the need for new board games, especially on full days where the students would attend all at one school in the district,” says her mother Kathy. She put up signs in numerous places and had a collection box at Super Fresh. She also sent E-mail to everyone in family member’s address books.
“The donations were wonderful,” says Kathy. “It took weeks to go through every game to make sure it had all the pieces.” Emily created a list of the games by age group and combined duplicate games with missing pieces to make one complete game. She was able to print missing instructions off the Internet and wrote to manufacturers asking them to donate missing pieces.
Once the games were organized she contacted the site supervisors at the schools and delivered the majority to the WW-P Extended Day Program at Wycoff, Dutch Neck, Maurice Hawk, Millstone River schools, and the Kindergarten Extension. “At one school, it was like Christmas, the students were so happy to receive new games to play with,” says Kathy.
Reverend Donna Bevensee, president of Plainsboro’s Citizens Emergency Response team, put her in touch with Beaver Creek Elementary School in Topmost, Kentucky, located in a rural area in the Appalachian mountains. She also paid for shipping costs through her ministry. The after school program welcomed the 45 games sent. She also donated 20 brand new games to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia in July.
Straley, who is active in many other activites, is also an original member of the Just A Chance Band started by classmate Katie Amigo) and was part of a dance-a-thon and concert on November 2 to benefit Special Olympics NJ. She plays percussion and sings with the group that recently received a humanitarian award through Kidsbridge at the College of New Jersey. Emily has been an escort for Special Olympics NJ athletes at the spring track and field events.
She is also part of the cast of High School North’s drama, “Dream Girl,” playing this weekend. In school choirs since the third grade, she has been on stage in Community Middle School’s “The Sound of Music” and “Flapper.” She has taken dance lessons at Dance Expo for 10 years, studying mainly jazz and hip-hop. For the past four years she has majored in performing arts with an emphasis on dancing, singing, and acting at Tomato Patch at Mercer County Community College.
Emily and her parents will be a part of the 6ABC/Boscov’s Thanksgiving Day Parade on Thursday, November 22, where Emily will be riding on the Thanksgiving float. “Our family decided as a new year’s resolution to somehow do some things different this year,” says Kathy.
They attended the Girl Scout 95th anniversary Sing-A-Long in Washington, D.C., and went to the Poconos instead of the shore on vacation. When they did return to their favorite hotel in Ocean City Maryland, they sampled different restaurants and tourist attractions.
“In keeping with our different theme this year, I was thinking about how to change Thanksgiving weekend,” says Kathy. “Then I saw an ad for balloon handlers while watching the news on television.” She E-mailed them that her family was interested. Emily, who did not meet the age and weight requirements to handle balloons, could apply to be a float escort or a clown. The application had to be accompanied by an essay explaining why she wanted to be a float escort, what type of theatrical training she had, and why she loved Philadelphia.
Her letter included information about watching the parade every year and her visits to the Franklin Institute, Independence Hall, the Liberty Bell, the National Constitution Center, Philadelphia Zoo, Academy of Natural Sciences, and Reading Terminal Market.
The family was chosen to work with the parade. Because a minor must be accompanied by an adult, Kathy will be walking with Emily as a float escort. They will be dressed as pilgrims walking alongside the “Major Drumstick” float. They will receive their costumes at 5:45 a.m. and be escorted to their float at the beginning of the parade route.
Perry will report to his assigned location at 3 a.m. to receive his costume and be part of the inflation team. He will also be a balloon handler and recently attended balloon practice school in Philadelphia. The parade begins at 8:30 a.m.
“This has been a very different year and we have enjoyed trying and learning new things,” says Kathy. “As a family, we enjoy everything life has offered us and we try to make every moment as fun and special as possible. This is a once in a lifetime experience.”
