[00:00:14] Sheryl: [00:00:14] Welcome to hearts of gold, today we have Anna with us. Hi Anna.
[00:00:18] Anna: [00:00:18] Hi, ms. Robinson.
[00:00:20] Sheryl: [00:00:20] How are you today?
[00:00:21] Anna: [00:00:21] I’m doing pretty good. How about you?
[00:00:23] Sheryl: [00:00:23] I’m great. Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:27] Anna: [00:00:27] Yeah, of course. The goal of my project go grow healthy, was to educate and inspire children at elementary schools to eat healthier.
[00:00:36]I recognize that the root cause of nutritional deficiency was the lack of knowledge about healthy eating. So I wanted to teach elementary students about nutrition and healthy eating so that good eating habits can develop at a young age and continue into the future. And to do this, I wanted to reach out to young students in interactive ways and that by working with a local elementary school and their gardening group, So first I set up a hydroponic wall garden at that elementary school to grow herbs and vegetables under the care of the school gardening group.
[00:01:12] And I did a lesson with the high school garden club that I, the high school garden club at my high school to teach about balanced meals using, the MyPlate food plate. And I did a cooking demonstration or helped organize a cooking demonstration for elementary students and put together a Google folder with activity and project ideas and resources that connect to eating healthy.
[00:01:38] Sheryl: [00:01:38] Can you share some of the activities you did with the students?
[00:01:40] Anna: [00:01:40] I did two main activities with students and the first one with a garden club from my high school. And we actually. We actually made this play right here with the elementary students. Oh. And the theory on the back and each of them drew nice pictures or examples of each of the foods. And then the second activity that I did with the students was a cooking demonstration.
[00:02:08] I worked with the food director at the, at my school district to organize a salsa cooking demonstration.
[00:02:16] Sheryl: [00:02:16] You mentioned you created a hydroponic wall garden. What is that?
[00:02:21] Anna: [00:02:21] So hydroponic wall garden, I actually purchased it with the help of a grant. It grows herbs and vegetables at the school using only water.
[00:02:30] So there’s actually no dirt in there. there’s only water and some nutrients to help it.
[00:02:35] Sheryl: [00:02:35] What was writing a grant like?
[00:02:37] Anna: [00:02:37] I received the grant, with the help of a person named Larry and to Nelly from the mimic foundation and the principal. At the elementary school actually helped me get the grant to be able to purchase this garden.
[00:02:50] Sheryl: [00:02:50] What was your biggest success from your project?
[00:02:53] Anna: [00:02:53] Are you able to connect with so many adults as well as students? I felt like I made very good connections with people and it was really exciting.
[00:03:01] Sheryl: [00:03:01] What was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
[00:03:03] Anna: [00:03:03] Having to replace the hydroponic garden multiple times, we actually bought it from a outside company and it kept breaking. So we had to replace it three times, but, I was able to overcome it by actually working well with the company. And once at the school we had difficulty cool. T’s growing the plants, but we troubleshooted with the gardening group and actually, I collaborated more with the students to be able to grow the plants.
[00:03:31] Sheryl: [00:03:31] Wow. Lots of learning involved there.
[00:03:33] Anna: [00:03:33] Yeah.
[00:03:34] Sheryl: [00:03:34] If there was anything that you could change about the gold award process, what would it be and why?
[00:03:39] To know that it’s okay to reach out to people and ask others for help, because you’re not the only person in this project and you definitely have a team that’s there to support you.
[00:03:49] Who was on your team?
[00:03:50] Anna: [00:03:50] There’s actually a couple people and groups that I want to mention. the first is. The principal of the school that I worked with, his name is mr. David Asher, and he was a very cute part of my team as he really helped me throughout this entire project. the second person is Mr. Larry Antonelli. He is from the mimic foundation and he provided a grant so that I would be, or the school, and I would be able to purchase the hydroponic garden for this project. The next person is ms. Stacy Tanner. She was a former teacher at the elementary school. That I worked with and she was in charge of the gardening group, who would, who I also would like to mention.
[00:04:34] The students really worked with me. So, ms. Tanner and all the students in the gardening group were integral part of my project. And I wouldn’t have been able to complete it without them. Next. I want to mention miss Lisa . She was a nutritionist. Or she is a nutritionist and she really helped me reach out to the kids.
[00:04:54] So from making like a poster too, How to present this material to the kids. I needed to think about what is the best way to reach out to them and interact with them. And the last person is miss Gaza. Rado she is the food director at the school district. She helped me put together or organize a food demonstration for the elementary students.
[00:05:18] Sheryl: [00:05:18] What was the food demonstration like?
[00:05:20] Anna: [00:05:20] Food demonstration was really exciting. we had two sessions and in each session, students from many grades from many classrooms, came down and they got to see how, salsa was made. By two school chests. And after that presentation on how to, how to make salsa and the benefits of a healthy snack like salsa, they all got to eat it.
[00:05:47] And even though it was, it was a little bit spicy, they really enjoyed it it seemed.
[00:05:52] Sheryl: [00:05:52] What other girl scout experiences have you had?
[00:05:54] Anna: [00:05:54] I did both of the bronze and silver awards and for the bronze award, my girl scout trip actually got to visit a recycling plant and we got to make the. Paper using like you sift through the, with the net to make paper.
[00:06:09] And I remember that very well for my silver award. I did a project on what is the best way to melt snow and how it can impact the environment. So we got to talk with the city, snow removal. People who come by to plow the roads during the winter, snow in Michigan, in the winter. There’s a lot of it.
[00:06:32] Sheryl: [00:06:32] What did you find out from your silver project?
[00:06:35] Anna: [00:06:35] For my silver award, I did a project on finding environmentally friendly alternatives to melting snow in the winter, and we tested multiple different kinds of snow melters, including sugar beet juice. And salt and we use the runoff water from that melted snow to grow plants. And water, water plants and see how they would grow.
[00:06:59] We found out in the end that salt is not good for the environment, as it runs off into bodies of water and negatively impacts the living ecosystem and the living organisms in it.
[00:07:13] Sheryl: [00:07:13] What other experiences have you had that you’d like to share with the audience?
[00:07:17] Anna: [00:07:17] I attended Moxie camp one summer. And that was definitely a very fun experience and memorable.
[00:07:25] Sheryl: [00:07:25] What else do you do during your high school career?
[00:07:27] Anna: [00:07:27] I did diving and I did orchestra, which I played the Viola and those are both activities during school that I’m so glad that I joined.
[00:07:38] Sheryl: [00:07:38] What were your favorite parts about being in those two organizations?
[00:07:42] Anna: [00:07:42] Well, in diving, I. Like challenging myself and like competing with myself to be better. But I also really liked the team atmosphere and having a group of girls that I could bond with and in orchestra. I really liked playing music. it’s kind of a solace and the music that we made was amazing.
[00:08:02] Sheryl: [00:08:02] What are your future plans?
[00:08:04] Anna: [00:08:04] Well, this fall, I plan to go attend the university of Michigan for college. And in the far future, or I guess not as far anymore, but I would like to become a doctor.
[00:08:16] Sheryl: [00:08:16] You know, what kind of doctor yet?
[00:08:17] Anna: [00:08:17] Right now interested in cardiology, but I’m trying to explore other careers as well in the medical field.
[00:08:25] Sheryl: [00:08:25] How do you make your smorze?
[00:08:26] Anna: [00:08:26] Without chocolate? Surprisingly, I really like just having the. Crunchy toasted marshmallow with the Graham crackers. But one thing I do do sometimes is I toast the Graham crackers as well. So they’re warm.
[00:08:43] Sheryl: [00:08:43] Mmm, that sounds delicious.
[00:08:45] Anna: [00:08:45] Very.
[00:08:46] Sheryl: [00:08:46] Thanks for joining us today.
[00:08:47] Anna: [00:08:47] Thanks for having me!
[00:08:48] Sheryl: [00:08:48] Be sure to click subscribe. So you always know when new episodes are released and don’t forget to, power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:08:59] Walter: [00:08:59] The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and shared network produced by off the Walter media productions.
[00:09:05] Thank you for listening and spreading the word on what we do. If you want to share your story of how you earned your gold award, reach out and send an email to grow and share. At outlook.com. Be sure to listen to the newest episodes on your favorite podcast app, as well as view the full video episodes on youtube.com/SherylMRobinson. That’s youtube.com/Sheryl, the letter M, Robinson. Take care, and we’ll see you next time.
