Walter: [00:00:00] The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and shared network produced by off the Walter media productions.
[00:00:14] Sheryl: [00:00:14] Welcome to hearts of gold. Today we have Kaitlyn with us. Hi Kaitlin.
[00:00:19]Kaitlyn: [00:00:19] Hi.
[00:00:20] Sheryl: [00:00:20] Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:23] Kaitlyn: [00:00:23] I raised a seeing eye dog for my gold award, which is kind of like a guide dog for blind people. And so the way that I wanted to approach this was that I wanted to teach people the different ways on how to approach guide dog, because a lot of people don’t really know actually how much can distract one from actually not being able to do its job.
[00:00:45] So I found out about. The CNI through national night out, which is in Hopewell and there was a table set up there and there was a puppy. And of course I love dogs and I just, that’s all that’s all I want to do is just play with dogs. So I went up to the table and I was like, what is this? And then they explained what the seeing-eye is.
[00:01:04] And I instantly just. We were having a hard time trying to figure out what I wanted to do for my gold award, because I didn’t want to do something small, but I wanted to do something like not too big, but I mean, kind of raising a dog was a little big in the end. I ended up talking to my parents about it and they were very like, Oh my gosh, like raising a dog, like that’s a lot.
[00:01:23] And I was like, yeah, we had a lot of talking and they finally agreed. So then we signed up for. The program. So at first we had to go to a couple of meetings, practice with other dogs. We got to, we got to babysit another dog before we actually got one of our own. And I decided I wanted a German shepherd.
[00:01:43] So then eventually we did get a puppy and her name was RoseLee. So. The whole part of this was so that I could teach for you on how to approach a guide dog. Right? So I made little flyers to show people the different ways to approach a guide dog, which could be, I don’t have a flare on me. I wish I had a flier on me, but so it was like, you shouldn’t call out its name.
[00:02:07] You shouldn’t say, Oh, like, sir, how are you? Like you shouldn’t talk to the person who’s blind basically. And you shouldn’t try to play with the dog, or if you have a dog yourself, Do not try to get anywhere near her, or if the dog is being a distraction to the other dog, pull away all that sort of stuff.
[00:02:25] So after I made the flyers and I. I also made a patch program for the girl Scouts, which you can achieve by doing activities and presentations within the patch to achieve the same thing. I grow patch when COVID hit, it became a problem trying to reach out to all the girl Scouts. So that completely at one point just halted my entire patch and.
[00:02:50] My entire gold award, basically. So I had to come up with different ideas and which I came up. It was just basically zoom meeting with people on zoom, because that’s all you can do now. It’s just like, well, I mean, we do this anyway, but it became very hard to complete it in the end, but I did.
[00:03:11] Sheryl: [00:03:11] You also did a video as part of your project. Can you tell us about the video?
[00:03:16] Kaitlyn: [00:03:16] So the video I did I basically, it was a slide show just showing everything that, what I’ve been doing how I met RoseLee what Roseli does different ways to approach a guy dog, as I said how I got into the program, how to raise one. So there’s certain ways to raise a guide dog, which is different than, as like my dog earlier, but they can’t bark.
[00:03:40] They’re not allowed to do that. They have to sit on command when you’re walking with them. Do they have to be on your left side at all times? They, when you say park, that means they have to go to the bathroom, right? When you say they have to go to the bathroom and RoseLee was pretty, she was fairly good at that.
[00:03:57] She was very good at when I said parks, she went to the bathroom, like she knew what that meant and. Also anytime we went out. So she’s like, usually you wouldn’t see a dog in the grocery store. You wouldn’t see like a dog at your local gym or something. So that’s what we had to go around doing with her.
[00:04:18] So we had to put a harness on and that’s how people knew this is a guide dog. You can not. Try to like play with this dog, unless someone were to ask, we’d make her set because she wasn’t training. But now she’s an actual guide dog. We. Went through that. And we would go to the grocery store. We go to the mall, the mall was the mall.
[00:04:38] Was her favorite. Like that was, that was cause there’s so many people there that it’s such a challenge in the beginning to bring her like for her not to get distracted. And then we’d also bring her too. Just little like national night out things like when they’re and then festivals and stuff like that, like we, they were, she’d be allowed in there.
[00:04:59] We’d have to contact the place first to make sure that it was okay. And let me tell her, tell them that she was a guide dog and they’d be like, okay, like, that’s understandable. So we had to do that for a lot of places, but for the most part, everywhere we went, she was allowed in and she did amazing. She actually, there was.
[00:05:15] One time where I brought her into Princeton and I actually had a sit down dinner with like a couple of my friends and she was perfect the entire time she sat there the entire time and just was bit, she was actually really tired. So she fell asleep.
[00:05:31] Sheryl: [00:05:31] I know one of the activities I saw you did with her was you went for an airplane ride.
[00:05:35] What is it like going for an airplane ride with a German shepherd?
[00:05:39] Kaitlyn: [00:05:39] We didn’t actually get to get off the ground, but we do a big thing through the seeing eye is we go, we practice with them at the airport. So we went to the Philadelphia airport and, or the Trenton. Well, there, you can do it at anyone actually, but we,
[00:05:56] went to the airport and, Oh gosh, there was probably like 30 dogs. There just all were all lined up because if you think about it, they have to go everywhere with that person. So the one place that they would practice a lot, which was at the airport, just in case anything were to, if somebody were to go, who is blind.
[00:06:13]So that was actually, the seats are very tight on an airplane. So I was kind of like suspicious on how a dog would maybe last, if somebody wanted to go to like Hawaii, like a 10 hour flight, so you definitely have to train with them. And we all walked in to the plane and Rosie did pretty. Okay. I don’t.
[00:06:33] I don’t know how she would have done it if it was off the ground, like with the ears popping and stuff, because we never actually did that. But I think it was a very cool experience for her to get on a plane and actually get to know that area before actually finding somebody, which I think is very important for them to get out as much as possible, because that’s what they will be doing.
[00:06:53] RoseLee is now in the breeding program part of it. So she is technically doesn’t have a person. That she’s going to be guiding, which apparently the breeding, the breeding program is better. Like that means that they have better characteristics and they’re the best of the best. Like they have the best characteristics because they want those characteristics to go down to the puppies as well.
[00:07:16] I’ve always known that RoseLee is like great, but it was, I w I would have liked to see her with like somebody, but. Because she definitely, when she has that person, she has that person. Like she’s very people, dog, which is good.
[00:07:30] Sheryl: [00:07:30] The interesting thing I learned from your video is the difference between a guide dog and a seeing eye dog. Can you tell us the difference?
[00:07:39] Kaitlyn: [00:07:39] The seeing eye program is solely for blind people. So these dogs are taught to when to cross the road. When a car is coming. Which a lot of a guide dog will say like another support dog or something. So like an anxiety dog that’s completely different than like a seeing eye dog. Like an anxiety dog might not know one of the cross, the street when it’s like a green light or the, when there’s no cars coming, they don’t have the sort of sense that a seeing eye dog does in a way.
[00:08:09] So it’s like support to that person, which a guy, a seeing eye dog also is, but it has the seeing eye dog needs a lot more. Practice because they’re with a blind person, like they, th th this person doesn’t know exactly where they’re going all the time. So a guide dog is a way to help them know where they’re going.
[00:08:30] And they have a lot of more senses than I think a regular guy dog would have.
[00:08:35] Sheryl: [00:08:35] So you talked about COVID being a challenge. What other challenges did you experience during your gold award project?
[00:08:41] Kaitlyn: [00:08:41] Just with RoseLee. There would be times where she did like spunk out a little, or it would be harder to learn one.
[00:08:48]Type of trick than another, she doesn’t bark, but she’s vocal. So she goes like, she’ll like try to, like, it’s like, like, she’ll like wine and stuff and it’s, it’s a lot, she’ll do it all the time. And we really had to work on her with that because she, instead of barking, that’s the way that she would like kind of communicate with us.
[00:09:08] So we had to like tell her to not do that. And also there was in the very beginning, she would jump a lot, which she just jumped on you. And we had to get her to like, anytime we went up to her, you wouldn’t like any of my friends, I’d have to tell you, you can’t pet her until she is sitting down, which is a big part of it because you don’t want a seeing eye dog jumping up on you or like the blind person, if anything.
[00:09:35] And then another one is definitely, this is going to go off the COVID one as well. Not just me, but with Rosalie, we weren’t allowed to go out anymore. Like we weren’t, you couldn’t, we couldn’t bring her out. We couldn’t see other people. I, we, she couldn’t, we couldn’t go to other dogs as well. So with the seeing eye program that like our meetings completely shut down, there was a point, a point where we just weren’t meeting for months at a time.
[00:10:05] Which is the whole point of it. Like, you’re, this is one once a month, you go to see all the dogs that you’ve been training and you, the people at the CNI, they help you with anything you’ve been doing wrong, or you might be like, so that was a huge part too, because we couldn’t go out anymore. We couldn’t bring her anywhere.
[00:10:22] Like she was stuck inside a lot at one point, but I mean, we’d take her around the block, like. Just to like walk, like to get energy out of her, but we couldn’t go out. Like we couldn’t bring her to the mall. Like we used to, like, it became like she became an inside dog and it was kind of like, That was, that was another big challenge because there was a loss of motivation, not just me, but also her.
[00:10:47] It took a lot of time, but then we started meeting up again in zooms and then they would, we would practice with her on zooms, through the other PE people. And then if we had any questions, we would ask them and say, Oh, we’re having this problem. Like, what did we do? And then it started building back up again, which was good, but it definitely did stop.
[00:11:05] Hold on. Everything. And then other challenges where like, sometimes I did lose motivation, like to finish the project because it is a lot. And I was, there’s only three girls in my troop and it was, there was only two of us out of the three that were doing it. So. I just, I was just like, Oh, this is so much like work.
[00:11:28] Like, and I was a senior at the time. And in the very beginning, I was like, I had APS and stuff like that. So it was just a lot and I definitely. I’m going to recommend do not start your project junior year, because that was when sat, well, technically SATs on a thing right now. Like, I mean, you don’t have to do them it’s choice, but I didn’t have a choice.
[00:11:52] I had to do the sat, but my junior year it was SATs. It was AP classes. It was honor classes like that’s the important year. And I started my junior year. Which wasn’t wasn’t smart at all because I had so much going on already and I had like soccer lacrosse. Like it was all I do recommend, like, if you can, if you’ve finished your silver award early, try starting at like maybe freshman year, end of freshman year, sophomore year, if anything.
[00:12:21] That was another hard part to start in the beginning because my group, since we were so small, we didn’t meet up or anything to get stuff finished to start the world war.
[00:12:29] Sheryl: [00:12:29] So is there any special memories from your project?
[00:12:34] Kaitlyn: [00:12:34] Definitely. A special memory was when RoseLee got her best because we were actually in target.
[00:12:41] And I’m going to go over again. How RoseLee whines a lot. This was her first test and this was her test to get her best. And we were in target and she absolutely loved my mom. So it was always me and my mom like training her together. And then at one point when, when we were in target, I needed to be alone with her, but my problem was Roseli knew my mom was in target somewhere.
[00:13:06] Without her. So we were in the middle of the test and she was whining because she knew my mom was somewhere else in target. And I was like, I was so embarrassed. I was like, Oh my gosh, she might not pass like, Oh my gosh, we’re going to have to go all through this all over again. But then she, in the end she started to get better.
[00:13:24] And she started to listen to me and they obviously saw that she was listening to me and she would sit and she would go down and she stopped whining. So I guess she just needed a little bit of time to process that. Okay, mom’s not coming back. I need to get into it. So then. We in the end, I’m so surprised because we did get her vest and that was like, me and my mom were so happy because we had taken a lot of time training her, but that was definitely a good memory for us because she, Oh gosh, my mom was like, yeah, I can hear, I could hear in target.
[00:13:56] She was like, yeah, I could hear a couple aisles down. And I was like, Oh, great. Okay. But that was, that was definitely a good one. And then, and then when we heard a couple of weeks ago that she had passed and she was going to the breeding program for how good her characteristics were, that was a big lineup for us because we knew she, she, we know she’s a good dog.
[00:14:14] Sheryl: [00:14:14] You also earned your girl scout, silver award. Can you tell us about that project?
[00:14:18] Kaitlyn: [00:14:18] We actually did how to set up a table set. So like your, where your plate goes, where your, and we talked about table manners as well. So with this, we went to. We did it over the summer. So we went to summer camps. We went to schools that also had summer camps.
[00:14:38] So around here we have many, many elementary schools. Like there’s not just one in our area that, and then we all go into the high school together. So. For that. We went to all the different elementary schools and we taught kids the different table manners that you should have because with the summer camps and stuff, those are kids who, parent, whose parents aren’t around all the time.
[00:15:02] So they’d have work all the time. They have they’re up late at night, their parents are working like it’s, stuff like that. And we thought to ourselves, we were like, Okay. So parents might not have time to teach their kids this type of things, these types of things. So we thought, why don’t we do it for our silver award project?
[00:15:20] So we had a, we actually had a laminated, like flyer as well. The kids got to keep and. We had the plate and then we had, Oh, and we also talked about what foods were good to eat. Not just like junk food all the time, because some kids just eat junk food all the time. And then where the knife goes, where the fork goes.
[00:15:44] And then by laminating it, they also got to, we would, we brought expo markers. So whatever types of foods we gave them, options of foods. And to make it more exciting. They got to draw what types of foods they wanted, because you need to, with younger kids, you need to have their attention. So we thought that would be a good way for them to have attention on honest teaching them table manners.
[00:16:10] And also what kind of foods to eat. That was a fun one. I liked that one because I like kids too. So it was, it was fun to see the kids actually participating in something that is also giving them something to learn as well. But as, as someone, myself who was in afterschool, I was in afterschool because my parents, they just, my dad was a police and he and my mom is just working you know, an eight to five job.
[00:16:36] So we were always at school late, and I just think it was something that I could also relate to because I didn’t have like someone to pick me up right after school. So this was something a little more different to do and give them to do when we came there and they seem very excited about it. So that was a lot of fun.
[00:16:57] Sheryl: [00:16:57] You are also an athlete. And you do a lot of other volunteer activities. Can you tell us about your other activities?
[00:17:06] Kaitlyn: [00:17:06] My family just in general, we are a part of the church community. Very big. I did a lot within the church and I went to my brother and I, we both went to Saint Anne school for CCD and stuff.
[00:17:19] So I was an altar server there for confirmation. We had to go through. We had to go through a bunch of stuff, a bunch of volunteering that we had to do, and one was like making peanut butter sandwiches for like kids kids in Trenton who didn’t have like that type of thing. And then again, this was also through my church, which this is one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.
[00:17:43] I went to justice, works, justice works is a program that basically brings you to an area that needs help. And the first year I went my sophomore year. And I went to Trenton and it’s overnight, you stay there for a week without like, this was my first time away from home for a long time without my parents.
[00:18:02] And they were nervous for me, but I had the time of my life. Like I was so happy there. I actually worked at the Trenton area soup kitchen for a week. It’s definitely sad to see how many people need to come in to get free food, because like they’re having a hard time and they need to have a job or something, but it was also like, I got to know so many people there and they would just talk about their lives and they were so they loved seeing us.
[00:18:28] And it was also something where they could get away from reality and talk to somebody that’s like they haven’t seen before. Just get to know somebody. And that was a lot of fun as well. And then my junior year going into my senior year, I went to West Virginia for a week. So in trend we got split up. And it was like, you go to the Trenton areas to kitchen, you go to the Trenton school and you go work with kids.
[00:18:54] Like there was, but in West Virginia, we all stayed together and we helped this man. He his trailer had caught on fire, so he lost everything. We helped him, he bought a new trailer, but it was like a completely like broken down trailer and stuff. So basically what we did was we offered him. Help. And we also offered a bunch of materials and stuff.
[00:19:19] So we built this trailer and this someplace that would feel like home for him. And we did that for a week and we got to know a lot of people there as well, which was so much fun. And we also just not, when you, we do that during the day, and then at night, we actually get to know each other, the people who are working with each other both times, I went not knowing anybody.
[00:19:41] Everybody always knew somebody like there was like groups or there was a pair, but I was all alone both times, but I made friends that I will remember forever. And can you talk about your soccer? My mom or dad? They didn’t do soccer when they were younger. My dad was very into baseball. He got me and my brother, we were in the softball and baseball, but.
[00:20:02] And Paul was not my like full-time sports. So I didn’t, but it’s weird how he got into soccer. They put us into rec and from there that was then second grade. I tried out for my first travel team and then middle school, I played in middle school and then high school. I also played in high school and I.
[00:20:24] Got a lot of awards from soccer. And I really do wish I did recruitment for high school, which I did not, but I plan on playing club soccer at James Madison university. So hopefully I do that, but this year they didn’t have it because of once again, COVID just, everything’s just covered rooms, everything, but.
[00:20:45]I’ve always had the love for soccer and especially just having a team, the Lawrence team, it’s not just like teammates that that’s family like that that is my second family and will always be my second family. So that’s a lot of fun too. I love soccer.
[00:21:01] Sheryl: [00:21:01] What are your plans at James Madison university and for your future?
[00:21:05] Kaitlyn: [00:21:05] I actually just declared my major this year. This last semester I went in undeclared because there’s so many things that you can do. It’s crazy. Like I’m still not even a hundred percent sure, but I did declare my major is health sciences, and I plan to hopefully, maybe go into physical therapy if anything, and then, but I also, there’s always behind, like, I always like wanted to be a Marine biologist so it could change.
[00:21:34] It could change, but it’s a lot of things nowadays is like, Oh, like how much money you make? And Marine biologists don’t make a ton of money, but also then again, I am the type of person who’d be like, fall, like do what you want to do. Like have fun. That is what I say, like do what you want to do. It doesn’t matter what other people think.
[00:21:54] And then I also, as I said before, I plan on playing club soccer and I also plan on doing a bunch of clubs there, hopefully. I also wanted to maybe make a club or the CDI at James Madison, which is, that’s a huge thing to do just starting a whole club by herself, but I think it would be really cool to get other people into it.
[00:22:15] Sheryl: [00:22:15] Are there other girl scout experiences you’ve had, you’d like to share?
[00:22:18] Kaitlyn: [00:22:18] I didn’t do my bronze ward, but I do recommend if there’s younger girls watching this, I do recommend you do your bronze award just to get yourself ready for the silver and gold ward. Because the bronze award is the, like probably the easiest, like to get done, but it also prepares you for the bigger ones that come up because the silver award was a lot of work.
[00:22:43] And then the gold award was even more. And I wish I knew a little bit more for the, when I, if I did the bronze award, I just, I don’t know why I didn’t do it. I just didn’t do it.
[00:22:51] Sheryl: [00:22:51] So how did you balance your time in order to keep girl Scouts as part of your life?
[00:22:55] Kaitlyn: [00:22:55] Shout out to my mom. She pushes me. She really does push me.
[00:23:00] And that was one thing she really pushed me with. It was to finish this, like to finish it out. And I’m glad I did because I got to not only experience the CNI, but I also got to achieve my gold award. Which is something a lot of people can’t say, and a lot of it was my mom pushing me to get stuff done.
[00:23:20] Like you get this done, we’ll do this now. Then a very organized person as well. Like I need to get this done and then this done, and then this done, like, I have like a timeline where I need to get stuff done. And I think that really helped as well, even though. A lot of things did push it back, such as COVID or like my SATs, like I needed to get that stuff done first.
[00:23:40] A lot of things did push it back, but we still got it done. Like we said, we said I was going to get it done and before senior year, but that didn’t happen. But, I mean, things get in the way, but I still, I still managed to get it done. So I think a lot of people could get it done.
[00:23:54] Sheryl: [00:23:54] Yeah, the gold award definitely improves your prioritization and organizational skills.
[00:24:00] You mentioned that you would encourage girls to do Brian’s in order to better prepare for silver and gold. What pieces of silver helped prepare you for the gold award?
[00:24:08] Kaitlyn: [00:24:08] Definitely working as a group for the silver award helped a little bit, because you could see the different aspects of. What my other troop members did in the, in the project.
[00:24:19] So like Kelly would be like, she would have everything organized. And that pushed me to be more organized in my gold award because it was just me. Like, it’s just me. So I think, I mean, you don’t have to do your silver award in group, but like, I’m glad that I did just because I got to learn other things from other people and I saw different perspectives from them.
[00:24:40] And then I put that into my gold award. And then also like the work work ethic to get it done. It was just so much fun doing. And I knew that me having a dog, like that would be so much fun doing as well for my gold award. So that also pushed me to get this the gold award done as well.
[00:24:57] Sheryl: [00:24:57] Is there anything else you’d like to share with the audience?
[00:24:59] Kaitlyn: [00:24:59] You do need to continue to stay focused. You can’t get sidetracked from like, you can’t just like put it off for months at a time because it’ll really like track it’ll track you down. Like in a way, like, because a lot of the time I would lose focus or motivation and then the. The end. My gold award project was pushed back a lot, as I said and I’ve could have finished it way quicker, as I did say before.
[00:25:23] And I do recommend, as I said, to get it done before junior year, especially if you plan on taking APS and honors. There’s always room to ask for help as well. Like from your parents or from your fellow girl Scouts, like always ask for help. It’s not like you have to do everything. Yeah. How do you make your smores instead of using Graham crackers?
[00:25:43] Because I really don’t know. I’m not a fan of Graham crackers. I’ll say that I use Oreos instead. So I like separate the Oreo and then I put the, I put the chocolate on and then I melt the marshmallow and then I’ll put the marshmallow on and it’ll melt the chocolate and the cream. So I think it’s really good.
[00:26:01] It’s definitely diabetes and one little thing, but that’s okay. It’s so good.
[00:26:07] Sheryl: [00:26:07] Well, thanks for joining us today.
[00:26:09] Kaitlyn: [00:26:09] Of course.
[00:26:10] Sheryl: [00:26:10] Make 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.
[00:26:22] Walter: [00:26:22] The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media productions.
[00:26:29] Thank you for listening and spreading the word on what we do. If you want to share your story of how you earned your goal award, reach out and send an email to growandshare@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.
[00:26:49] That’s youtube.com/sheryl, the letter M, Robinson. Take care and we’ll see you next time.