Natalie Caricato, Andrea Mandel, MaryAnn McKiernan, and Wendy Emerman were honored recently for their outstanding service to Girl Scouts by the Delaware-Raritan Council. All are leaders in the West Windsor-Plainsboro Service Unit and were nominated by fellow WW-P Girl Scout leaders.
Emerman was honored with the Distinguished Leader Award, recognizing outstanding service and the ability to motivate girls to develop self awareness and personal values and contribute to society in a meaningful way. A Girl Scout leader for 14 years, she has mentored four girls while they earned their Gold Award.
Caricato and Mandel received Appreciation Pins for running programs available to all scouts in the service unit. Caricato has two daughters in Girl Scouting and leads two troops (1285 and 1885), in addition to serving as the consultant for older troops in the WW-P unit. With her two troops she organizes a highly successful food drive each year for HomeFront and the Plainsboro Food Pantry. Mandel, who has led troop 149 for 10 years, has organized the service unit camping weekend for several years. She also maintains the local Girl Scout website.
McKiernan was awarded an Honor Pin for her dedication to both the council and the unit. For several years she has managed the QSP Nuts fundraiser program for the Delaware-Raritan Council and for the West Windsor/Plainsboro Service Unit. She is presently the Service Unit Treasurer and has led troop 1184 for nine years.
For information about joining Girl Scouts as an adult or scout in West Windsor and Plainsboro, contact Pat Held at 609-897-0529 or E-mail girlscoutswwp@verizon.net.
Eagle Scout Project
John Lilly, a sophomore at High School South, coordinated the construction of 20 blue bird boxes out of cedar wood and created a numbering system for all of the bird boxes at the Plainsboro Preserve as his Eagle Scout project. The dedication ceremony was held on August 23. The project now goes to the Boy Scouts to be reviewed for consideration.
There are global positioning system coordinates for each box as some of them are buried from view. His interest in birds began when he was a Cub Scout and involved with the Cornell bird watching study.
His mother, Marilyn, teaches German in middle and high school in Hopewell Valley. His father, John, is a retired electronics engineer. His brother Matthew, also a member of Troop 40, is a freshman at High School South.
Born in West Islip, Long Island, John lived with his family in Maine, and then moved to West Windsor in 1996. Lilly has been a Boy Scout since fifth grade. At High School South he is in the German Club, Model UN, and the junior varsity cross country team. He is also active at the Church of St. David in Cranbury.
He raised the funds for the project through a yard sale at Jefferson Park. Members of the troop, friends, family, and businesses donated items for sale, supplies, and cash.
