By Alison Rooney
Emily Knapp, a Haldane senior who has participated in Girl Scouts for many years, and is now at the most senior level, immersed in earning her Gold Award, came to visit a troop of younger girls, Cold Spring’s Troop 2914, to give them advice on their pursuit of the Silver Award. The younger troop was gathered at the Philipstown.info office putting together a presentation on Indonesia for the World Thinking Day event, to be held at the Philipstown Recreation Center on March 6.
Detailing her troop’s involvement with the Silver Award and her own personal role in it, Emily went on to provide very helpful details on steps required to earn these prestigious awards, the Gold Award being the equivalent of the Boy Scouts’ Eagle Scout project. According to Girl Scout literature, the Girl Scout Silver Award represents “a girl’s accomplishments in Girl Scouting and her community as she grows and works to improve her life and the lives of others. The first four requirements of the Girl Scout Silver Award help girls build skills, explore careers, gain leadership skills, and make a commitment to self-improvement “¦ The final component of the Silver Award is to identify an issue in the community or at school that you feel strongly about. Find out more about it. Use your voice to address it. Focus on coming up with a solution.”
Emily urged the girls to find a project that they connected with, which would inspire them to put in the hard work needed to bring their project to fruition. She then described her own endeavors in discovering what to do for her Gold Award, which is an individual, self-guided project, which aids the community in some way. Her description of the twists and turns along the way, including letting go of initial ideas, was realistic and gave the younger girls a lot to consider and think hard about.
The structure of the Girl Scouts often involves older girls guiding younger girls through activities and through a modeling of behavior. The younger girls in this instance were the older girls a few months ago, helping out a troop of girls younger than themselves in various activities. There are a host of Girl Scout troops throughout Philipstown, for all age levels.
