DeKalb Girl Scout earns Silver Award

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Lauren Zelaya, a member of Girl Scout Troop 941 and freshman at DeKalb High School, recently completed her Girl Scout Silver Award project, earning her the highest award given to a Cadette Girl Scout.

Before selecting a project, Cadette Girl Scouts must earn the Cadette Leadership Award, the Career Award and the Girl Scout Silver 4B’s Challenge. To earn the Leadership Award, girls must complete a minimum of three badge requirements that pertain to the Girl Scout Law.  They also must complete a focus book and at least 15 hours of direct leadership experience.  The Cadette Career Award is earned by exploring careers, discovering strengths and interests as well as completing badgework related to business.

The final step before selecting a project is completing the 4B’s Challenge, which includes activities that allow girls to celebrate themselves and follow these principles:

• Become – become the best they can be and learn about relating to others with respect

• Belong – while building lasting friendships

• Believe – they must develop their ideas and voice what is important to them

• Build – take action on what they care about to make a difference

Zelaya spent several hours interviewing leaders of different service organizations, such as DeKalb County Hospice, Conexion Communidad, TAILS, Elder Care Services and Hope Haven, to determine what leaders felt the needs were in her community. While Zelaya wanted to help out in some way with every agency, she decided that her project would benefit the children and residents of Hope Haven Homeless Shelter in DeKalb.

Her Silver Award project had three parts and took more than 45 hours to complete. Part one was to involve the community and local churches to collect new socks, school shoes and underwear for the children who reside at Hope Haven. Part two was to create birthday boxes and incentive bags with movie passes for the children who don’t have opportunities to have a birthday party or do fun things like go to the movies. Part three was to hold a food and supplies drive at a local store and to volunteer to prepare lunches at Hope Haven.

The project was enormously successful, according to a news release. The following churches and Girl Scout troops participated in collecting shoes, socks, underwear and birthday boxes: First Congregational United Church of Christ, St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mayfield Congregational Church, Unitarian Universalist Fellowship Church, Hillcrest Covenant Church, Trinity Lutheran Church, First Lutheran Church, Federated Church, Girl Scout Troop 941, Girl Scout Troop 906 and Girl Scout Troop 543.

Altogether, 45 pairs of new shoes, 68 packages of underwear and 57 packages of socks, among other miscellaneous items were collected. In addition, 17 birthday boxes with various themes were collected. All birthday boxes included cake mix, frosting, candles, balloons, treat bags, table cloth, plates, napkins, cups, a birthday banner, stickers, treats for guests and a disposable camera to capture the memories. 

Zelaya also held two food drives – one at Schnucks and one at Jewel and was able to collect more than $1,500 in food, paper and cleaning products. Through cash donations, she was able to purchase and prepare three lunches and one pancake breakfast for the residents in the emergency care program at Hope Haven. Finally, she put together 10 movie incentive bags as rewards for the children who earn good grades.