Kim Clifton of West Windsor recently completed her Girl Scout Silver Award project, the highest award for Cadette Girl Scouts. Her project, entitled “Women and Leadership,” was designed to help both girls and women who are ready to lead. She ran workshops for Junior Girl Scouts to earn their Lead On badge in preparation for their Bronze award and bridging to the next level of scouting.
The High School South sophomore also organized a baby supply drive to create “New Mommy” bags for mothers-to-be served by the Children’s Home Society of New Jersey, an agency that assists at-risk children and families. “I chose this project because I wanted to work with women in different stages of life and I wanted to incorporate my creativity into workshops and sewing,” says Clifton. “My intent was to give women a jump-start on leading their families and children to a better life.”
She received donations of nail clippers, aspirators, medicine droppers, infant spoons, bottles, onesies, and other baby essentials from Girl Scouts, her family, and Target of East Windsor. Much of her effort was spent sewing 20 sets of blankets, burp cloths, and washcloths that she assembled into “boo-boo” bunnies, to include in the gift bags she decorated. CHS of NJ distributed the gift bags at a baby shower for the new mothers. The project exceeded 35 hours and was preceded by prerequisites focused on leadership, career exploration, and project definition.
“Kim has shown outstanding maturity, professionalism, and especially creativity during this project,” says Valerie Noble, development and communications coordinator, at CHS of NJ. “We are grateful that she chose to work on a project for at-risk children and families of our agency.”
Clifton, a member of WWP Girl Scout Troop 1018 since kindergarten, earned the Bronze award as a Junior Girl Scout. Her leaders are Anne Clifton, her mother, and Ana Dhulekar.
“It’s great to see girls grow into young women who can design and execute a project like this on their own,” says Louisa Ho, co-service unit manager of WWP Girl Scouts, who served as Clifton’s project advisor. “It’s one of the truly great things about Girl Scouting.”
