Girl Scout troop earns Silver Award

Earning a Cadette Girl Scout Silver Award is the highest honor of Cadette Girl Scouts, and the second highest award given for all scouts.
Making the award even more special for a local group of 7th- and 8th-graders was being the first from their school to make it that far.
Troop #175, advised by Mary DeWitt Hessen, is made up of St. Joseph students from Clarkston, Lake Orion and Oxford.
The troop includes Sarah Connolly, Laura Hessen, Nicole Kudla and Renee Parrott of Lake Orion; Susan Reynolds of Oxford; and Julia Vela and Jenny Vyskocil of Clarkston.
After completing 100-125 hours of prerequisite service, the scouts did a 50- hour project to compete their Silver Award requirements.
That 50-hour project involved taking a group of second-grade Brownie troops on their first camping trip.
The trip, which took place around Halloween, involved changing the name of Camp O’Fair Winds to Camp O’Scare Winds for effect.
The scouts performed a skit to ‘Monster Mash,? and took a nighttime hiking trip, among some of the trip’s many highlights.
The troop also held a lock-in at St. Joseph for some 60 girls in second- through fifth-grades this spring.
The girls said the key to their success is due to the simple fact that they have an easy time getting along with each other.
‘They’re goal-oriented and driven,? DeWitt Hessen said of her troop.
‘They’re going to bridge to seniors and then go for their Gold (award),? she added. ‘That will take all of high school to complete.?
Just to get the Silver Award included 15 hours of leadership work, some training sessions and earning four badges.
The troop knows that earning the highest award in Girl Scouts will take even more work, but admitted that they are looking forward to the challenge.
‘Plus, we know that Mrs. Hessen would have nothing to do if we didn’t meet,? one member joked.

Girl Scout troop earns Silver Award added by Colin Baumgartner on July 19, 2006
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Combining music and creativity helped Girl Scout Troop 849 complete their 50-hour service project to receive their Silver Award.
‘You have to choose a project that would benefit other Girl Scouts,? scout Megan Dutton said. ‘We picked out different camp songs and made music videos of the songs.?
‘Our troop has always enjoyed singing,? scout Tricia Connolly added.
The goal of the project, the group said, was to help younger scouts learn the camp songs in a fun environment. Once the video was finished, the scouts also created songbooks to correspond with the video and also visited some troops to help them learn.
‘We went to some younger Girl Scout Troops and sang songs to them in person and helped them learn the songs and the hand motions,? added Sarah Piquette.
The troop, which is made up of eighth graders from St. Joseph’s, Lake Orion and Oxford schools, taped scenes for their music videos on various locations including at St. Joseph’s, at Great Lakes Athletic Club’s pool and out on a playground.
‘We also went up to camp for a weekend to film some of the songs,? Connolly added.
According to scout Kaitlin Sarnacki, the group picked their favorite camp songs to include in the video and songbook. After selecting the songs, they coordinated costumes and accessories to go with the songs and then got down to taping.
‘It was hard work,? Dutton said. ‘We put a lot of thought into it.?
Piquette served as the filmmaker and producer for the project, and edited the video on her home computer.
For Piquette, it was a great project to do because she would like to be a producer and see her name in lights, she said.
The group had fun watching themselves on the video when the project was completed, and look forward to handing out DVDs to younger troops once the copies are made.
‘Just because it’s service doesn’t mean it can’t be fun,? scout Sarah Phalen said, with the whole group agreeing that lots of fun was had, especially at the day of filming at the pool.
Troop 849’s video will be given to local scout troops and also housed in the Girl Scout Library, as a tool to help new troops learn their camp songs.

Girl Scout Troop earns Silver Award added by Cathy Kimmel on May 30, 2007
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