Rebecca Van Dyke, a junior at High School South, has earned her Girl Scout gold award, the highest award that a Girl Scout can earn. Her project was called “Play Area and Reading Nook for El Centro.” She created an outdoor play area and a reading area targeted at preschool age children for El Centro, a part of Catholic Charities of Trenton that serves low-income Hispanic families in the Trenton area.
Van Dyke financed her project through profits from troop fundraisers, gifts from family and friends, her own money, and proceeds from duct tape wallets, purses, and gift card holders she made and sold. Van Dyke joined Girl Scouts in kindergarten and has been a scout every since. “In addition to doing something positive for the community, I also got a chance to learn new skills and improve myself,” says Van Dyke.
For the outdoor play area, Van Dyke purchased a variety of playground toys, including a playhouse, see-saw, picnic table, and small fleet of ride-on toys. She built a large sand box and equipped it with sand, toys, and a cover. She also painted the fence in the outdoor area in bright colors to make it more kid-friendly.
In addition to the outdoor play area, she created a reading nook in the office waiting area for parents to read to their kids and for kids to read to themselves. She bought books targeted for kids ages 3 to 8, built a bookshelf, and bought bean bag chairs to create a cozy environment. Van Dyke has fond memories of such reading areas from when she was that age. “I loved the reading area in my kindergarten classroom — especially the bean bag chairs,” she says.
“Rebecca is a true Girl Scout,” says Louisa Ho, her troop leader and mother. “It has been a wonderful experience to see her and the other girls in my troop mature and develop leadership skills. It’s amazing what these girls can do. I’m really proud of all the community service activities that she has done as a Girl Scout, but especially her silver and gold award projects.”
Her father, Carl Van Dyke, is managing director of Martian Holdings, a family LLC focused on conversion and rehabilitation of the Grover’s Mill Barn (where the Martians landed) into a mixed use facility.
“Your efforts have been able to provide the kid’s a safe and clean environment,” says Robert Hernandez of El Centro and the project mentor. “Your accomplishments have made an enormous difference in the lives of the children we serve. Many of our kids don’t have cozy places to read or clean playgrounds to play in but now they do, thanks to you.”
“The environment we sometimes occupy provides security and at times self worth to the vulnerable children we serve,” says Hernandez. “Your efforts and love for children is reflected in the project you undertook but most importantly in the hearts of the children you served.”
Van Dyke’s time is also spent with the Pirate Marching Band at South. She is the lead bass drummer, drum line section leader, and the band’s vice president. “She loves the marching band so much that she talked her younger brother, David, into joining as well — even though he plays the cello,” says their mother. “So now he too is a bass drum player, and gets to carry the heaviest drum.”
Van Dyke organized a group of marching band kids and parents to spend a week volunteering for a Habitat for Humanity chapter in New York last summer. She’s hoping to organize this trip again next summer. When marching band isn’t consuming all of her available time, she dances with Dance Corner and is a member of the school’s Math Club.
For her silver project Van Dyke and her partner Lauren Kullmann, now a senior at High School South, started a program to bake small individual birthday cakes for clients of the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen, so that they wouldn’t feel forgotten on their birthdays. They started the program in 2008, and other Girl Scout troops have continued it to this day. Through her community service activities as a Girl Scout, Van Dyke has received the Presidential Volunteer Service Award four times.
For information about joining Girl Scouts in West Windsor and Plainsboro contact Ho at 609-371-2119 or send an E-mail to girlscoutswwp@verizon.net.
