The Bronze Award, the highest award for a Junior Girl Scout to receive, was recently awarded to four 11-year-old girls in the West Windsor Plainsboro Service Unit for helping foster children.##M:[more]## Nikita Gupta, Kimberly Kullman, Abby Stern, and Megan Donnelly, all Troop 677 members, worked with special needs foster toddlers in East Windsor.
Nikita, Kimberly, and Megan will be sixth grade students at Grover Middle School. Abby will be at Community Middle School.
Nikita’s parents, Vaishali and Anupam, are software consultants. She has a younger sister Radhika, 7. Nikita enjoys math and science, and painting and swimming.
Kimberly’s sister, Lauren, 12, is also a member of Troop 677. Her other siblings are Katie and Kevin. Their mother, Valerie Kullman, is a pediatrician at Princeton Nassau Pediatrics, and their father, Randy is an environmental scientist at Camp Dresser and Mckee. Kimberly enjoys cheerleading, soccer, and swimming.
Megan’s parents, Laura and Mike, are both lawyers. Her sisters are Katie, 12; Kelly, 5; and Lauren, 1. Megan enjoys knitting and playing soccer.
Abby’s mother, Rochelle, is a medical librarian, and oversaw the Bronze Award project for the four girl scouts. Her father, Adam Stern, is a dentist in East Windsor. Abby, who enjoyed singing and writing, has a younger brother, Ross, 8.
The girls developed a close relationship with three toddler foster children they visited over the school year. The four girls planned and designed the program to visit and play with the children, cook for the foster family, and create textured pillows created by sewing various collected fabrics. Other aspects of the project educated the girls on the importance of the foster program, parental responsibility to children, serious consequences of substance abuse, and the unique care of children who have multiple disabilities including visual, audio, behavioral, and neurological impairments.
They worked with Lesley Kwitkin, a foster mother in a special needs foster care home, who spent time explaining the children’s disabilities, treatment therapy, and the foster care process. “The girls brought such happiness to my home and the pillows are going to be used in many ways,” said Kwitkin.”I think sharing and learning is the way to reach youth of today.”
For information about Girl Scouts in the WW-P area, call Pat Held at 609-897-0529.
