Walter: [00:00:00] The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media productions.
Sheryl: Welcome to hearts of gold today. We have Molly with us. Hi Molly.
Molly: Hi, thank you so much for having me.
Sheryl: Thank you for joining us. Can you tell us about your girl scout goal award project?
Molly: So my girl scout gold award project is called nurturing nature knowledge, and it focuses on nature education for kids. So I started my project in February of 2020, so I got mine approved February 24th, and then a few weeks later, everything got shut down.
So I originally wanted my project to be in person nature, education programming, all throughout spring of 20, 20 and 2021. However I had to change that around and I ended up doing virtual nature education programs on zoom and Instagram live to keep younger girls Scouts engaged in learning about nature and the environment [00:01:00] while we’re stuck at home.
So I did 25 workshops with brownies, daisies, juniors, and. To teach them about nature. And I did the nature, art badges, eco Explorer, all of those badges to keep girl Scouts engaged with nature while they were at home. And the next part of my project was that I created an in-person nature education program, which I was luckily able to run in the spring of 2021.
And I brought girls from my community, girl Scouts and non girl Scouts to different places around us in our county and tell them about different local ecosystems. So we went to a state park, we went to the Hudson river, I’m from girl Scouts side of the Hudson. So we went down to learn about the estuaries.
We learned about nature in our town. And to wrap it all up, I taught my girls how to do a take action project. Then they actually got to go and create a project that they wanted to do and carry it out do something about the environment. So one of my girls on one group of my girls did a garbage cleanup and they made a little video about it.
And my other group made posters to kind of [00:02:00] advocate for environmental change and for people to be better to the planet. The third part of my project, I took that program that I ran and I created it into a booklet. I actually have. And have it right here. I created this booklet. It’s about 50 something pages and it’s how to run the nature program that I ran.
So it’s all the activities. All of my discussion points, all compacted into one neat little booklet so that anyone can run my activities or retreat my program. And I sent that booklet out to 60 girl scout leaders and educators across the country. It’s also being adopted into my girl scout councils camp.
So my program will be used at the nature program. At the day camps and the resident camps in girl Scouts higher the Hudson. And I also sent it out to some educators and I know just around where I live and that I just had personal connections with. And that’s my project, all summed up.
Sheryl: That’s almost three projects in one.
Molly: That’s something me and my mentor would joke about you like your, with all your hours and what you’ve done, you’ve basically done to gold awards.
Sheryl: [00:03:00] So you put a lot of time and you did lots of different pieces for your gold award project. Reflecting back on that. Would you change anything that you did or would you have any recommendations for other girls as to how to monitor how big or small their project is?
Molly: I don’t think there’s too much that I would really change. I think I did at the end, I let it go a little long. I ended up sending me, you know, almost two years on the project, 160 hours, keeping track of like what you’re doing to make sure that you’re doing this because you want it to be in your project and you’re not just doing it just to be like, oh, this is something else I can do.
This is something else I can do. Cause that’s something that I ended up doing towards the end of my project. I was just like, oh, maybe I can add this. And my mom, who’s also my troop leader. She kind of sat me down and she was like, are you doing. Just to do it. Are you doing this because you think it will be an impactful part of your project.
And I think really focusing on, is this something that I want for part of my project or that it’s, this is something that I’m like, Ooh, that’s fun. So I think really just like taking the time to kind of distinguish what you want for your project and what is [00:04:00] just like, not exactly necessary. Cause some of the things I was saying, I wanted to maybe add onto my project.
I could just do for fun or work with like another troop and do it.
Sheryl: What inspired your project?
Molly: Well, number one is I am a girl scout camp girl. So I started going to camp Edison, voice and light, which is the dress the day camp. And my counsel when I was about eight or nine and I never stopped going back and at the girl scout camp is where I actually found like my love of nature and just like being outside and like, Learning through hands-on like hiking and we would go down to a Creek and like to do investigations in the Creek and like just learning from my counselors and just being outside is something that really pushed me, like want to create like a nature program and like work with kids outside.
And then another thing. My grandpa was actually an environmental educator. So he worked at the museum of natural history and he taught people about the environment and he would lead these like nature walks in like central park and like teach people about the environment. He just had such like a knowledge [00:05:00] of the outdoors and like teaching people.
And that’s just something that like, it also inspired me. Cause I thought it was just really cool. And I just love the outdoors. I love the environment and nature and working with kids that I’ll just kind of. Fell together. And I found a project that was perfect for me.
Sheryl: Being a camp girl. I bet you’re extra excited that your project is getting incorporated into the camp.
Molly: Yes oh my gosh. It’s so cool because I’ll be working there this summer. And I was trying to get, see, like kids doing things that I started and I created, and I just, I’m very excited.
Sheryl: What was the process like to work with your counsel, to get them to take your project and make it a part of their curriculum?
Molly: My mentor actually is one of the people who’s in charge of like the planning and the processing for getting things like that involved in like the camps and like getting that. As a duck being adopted into the camp program. So I talked to her about if we could get it into the camps, if we could make it a part of, you know, campus employees.
And she was, she just said, yes, I just, I asked her and she said, yes. [00:06:00] So never. I think that’s like just some advice, never be afraid to ask because you know, the answer could be yes. And so once I got her. Once we talked to him, she said, yes, I I sent her copies of it. I, I printed it out. Like I had this one for me, but I also have copies printed out for the capsule, actually have a physical version of the booklet and it’s, that’s it got adopted into my camp.
Sheryl: Your booklet is very thorough. What went into creating that booklet?
Molly: A lot of time, a lot of procrastination I have to admit. I just kind of went through each of the programs that I did at first, I wrote down. Lots of lists of just like what I did, what I thought worked well, what didn’t work well, and then for each item I went and I thought about how I would explain the activity to someone else who would be teaching it for everything.
I was like, how would I tell someone else to teach this to someone? And I kind of tried to write my booklet in a way that like, it’s like, I’m talking to you. Which that’s some feedback I got that I think that it really did carry through that. My booklet is like, I’m [00:07:00] talking to you. This is how I would teach someone to teach someone to do something.
And so each chapter of my booklet, each one’s divided into different parts of the ecosystems and like the different, the different sessions that I ran for my actual program. So I had outdoors, like in the trees water backyard, all of that. And so each section I had activities first, so I have how to run each of the activities that I taught in my booklet.
So this is the start of chapters, so I have chapters, and overview, how to do the activities and which activities I did and which ones worked. And then I had the stuff in points. So I feel like, although we did the activities and the activities were really important, then they did really help the kids. Cause it kind of like helps you get hands-on and helps you like
Be a part of what we’re learning, but I think the discussion points is kind of a harder thing to teach people about teaching cause discussions, you know, they fall naturally. They have they happen with your group and they’re all so different for everyone. So I wanted to just have the points that I thought were [00:08:00] important, points that like really stuck out with me with like my girls and the people that I taught.
I think this is something that you might want to mention because it could get a good conversation flowing or like this is something that some kids might not realize. So make sure that you consider that and talk to your kids about that. Just having these discussions and encouraging discussions between like an educator and your group kind of makes it a better program because you’re really encouraging everyone to have their own voice and to have their own opinions.
That’s kind of discover what they wanted to discover.
Sheryl: The booklet is beautiful. How did you decide on the layout and how did you connect with the artists that helped you with the booklet?
Molly: Oh, my gosh. I could talk about her art forever, that is one of my really good friends. She is an amazing artist. When I realized that I wanted to like, have pretty illustration so that it’s, you know, aesthetically nice to look at.
I just talked to her and I was like, would you be interested in. In doing this for me and helping me out. And she said, yes. And she created this beautiful artwork. I mean, like, look at this tree. And so I talked to her, [00:09:00] I told her what I wanted. I asked her to help me with the tree each chapter. I’m going back in this chapter.
I just keep flipping to it. Each chapter has its own little icon that she designed. So I just told her what I wanted, that I wanted like a tree for the cover. Little icons for each one. And she delivered exactly how I wanted it to look. She, it was just so amazing. And so I was so grateful that I had her on my team.
And so once I had this art, I kind of played around, I used Canva, which is a really great free website that allows you to like make layouts. And so I used Canva and I kind of set it up. I played around with it a lot. I actually spent a lot of time on it. Before I even started writing it, just like trying to get it set up because that worked for me having my layout before typing everything out, made it easier for me to kind of like figure out how I want it to go.
But I used Canva and. Laying it out and making it look pretty. I sent it to my friend, my artist friend, Katie, and she looked it over and like gave me some pointers from an aesthetic point of view. And I sent it to my other friends and just kind of had them help [00:10:00] me figure out what’s going to be the best way to make it look the best that it can.
And again, I’m really grateful. I had like a team of friends supporting me and helping me out make it look so nice.
Sheryl: What was the favorite part of the project for you?
Molly: Talking to people like who were in my program and like, hearing people’s reactions. I’ll share I think two stories that really stuck out to me, the most one was we were at, I think it was our third or fourth session and I just had some random fact, I don’t remember what it was.
Off the top of my head, but one of my little girls just looked up and me she’s like, how do you know so much about nature? And I didn’t, it just not really good to like, hear this little kid who, you know, maybe not, it doesn’t have as much like nature education. And this is like her first time in the nature program, like this, just asking me how do you know so much?
And I, it felt really good to that I was like, Source of knowledge. And I was, it really showed me that I was actually teaching them something and that they were getting something out of my program and that they were learning and they saw this as somewhere that they could learn. And then the other one was because of my project [00:11:00] and some just like connections.
I made a troup that I worked with. I was invited to a different service scene. It’s outdoor. They had like an outdoor workshop day with, for all the girls in their service unit. And I was invited to go lead a workshop as part of their service unit and throughout the day different moms and different Scouts and different leaders all recognize me from virtual programs that I’ve done with their troup,
even if it, even though it was months ago that I worked with them, they recognized me. They’re like, oh, you’re nurturing nature knowledge. And I was like, yeah, I am. And they were like, we love your programming. Or like, they had such nice things to say about me, even though. Like we had only met like on a, an hour long Zoom call a few months ago, but they still remembered my programming.
They said that their girls really enjoyed it and it just felt really good to know that. People are actually learning. And people were actually like enjoying what I did and learning from what I talked about.
Sheryl: About other than the pandemic and having to pivot from in-person to online events, what was your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it?
Molly: Time management and also wanting to fit [00:12:00] more into my project than I think I possibly could have. And I possibly like. Would have been able to like feasibly do towards the end. You know, I was, it was dragging out and like senior year and junior year is when I was like doing some of the bulk of this project.
And so there were some days where like I would come home from school or come home from virtual school and just would not want to work on my project and had some, a hard time getting motivated. Cause it’s such a, it’s already so much with school. And then it’s just another thing that I had to do. Well, I think talking with my friends and my family and like looking at other success stories of girl Scouts, like I kind of had to get myself reinspired and like, think of all the other good things that came from my project to get myself reinspired and re motivated.
And also just like scheduling time in my day that I was like going to work on my project help with the time management bit and the motivation. It was like, okay, this day from seven to nine, or whenever you’re going to work on your project and you’re going to get something done. And just like being happy [00:13:00] with the work that I was doing.
Cause there were some days where I would like do something, I’d be like, oh, I didn’t get too much done. But then I had to kind of remind myself that I did get something done and that’s kind of what was important. And then also. There were some things that I wanted to add at the end of my project that I was kind of, I had originally wanted to do, but when it was a different project, when I started, because my project changed so much right.
When it started. And I think I was a little disappointed, cause there was some something I wanted to like revamp some nature center in my camp, but I realized like, towards the end. I, it really wouldn’t have been feasible and kind of accepting that I can’t do everything in this one project, but that was kind of hard to deal with.
But I think I realized like it wouldn’t have gone too well if I had tried to fit everything in just to fit it in, rather than sitting in. So I think those are two challenges, but I was able to overcome them. And I think just, if there are challenges, if there’s anyone listening, who’s working on their Gold award [00:14:00] finding challenges just you’ll overcome it.
And I think knowing that you will overcome, it kind of helps you overcome it. If that makes sense.
Sheryl: You have also earned your bronze and silver award projects. Do you have memories to share from those projects?
Molly: So my silver award project, I worked with some girls in my troop. We went to a residential treatment center and we worked with a group of boys on the autism spectrum who had developmental disabilities.
And we taught them how to make sensory toys to kind of help them and calm down and just like find some calmness. And we. Created like a sensory cabinet where they could store all of their toys and the things that we help them make. And it felt, it was really, it felt good to like be teaching people when I cause we were still young, we were in seventh and six grade and, you know, teaching kids, other people had to like do things.
So I really enjoy that. And then I actually, we made a booklet about all of our sensory toy recipes and we sent it out to the social workers at the residential treatment center [00:15:00] and they still use it to this day. And I spent quite a few years and they still were using it, which is really cool. And it also became like kind of a base point for me, like to compare the booklet that I made for my gold award too
cause I was. The thing that I did tell as part of the project, I was the one who kind of created the booklet for our silver award and just like seeing my improvement personally, like between the booklet I made for my silver award and the one I made for my gold award. And just like how I improved in that like graphic design skill was kind of fun to see.
And for my bronze award. My whole trip worked together on our bronze award. And we worked with a senior citizen home and we planned some activities that we ran with the senior citizens. So we did like, my favorite was an Alice in Wonderland tea party. So we all kind of dressed up as different characters and like got all fancy.
And we had a tea party with them and we played some games. Taught them some crafts and we had some snacks and that was really fun. And I remember now there was an older man that we met there and he, we came every time we came back, [00:16:00] he was so excited to see the girl Scouts. We were always so excited to see him and that, that was really fun.
I just, I have so many good memories doing the higher awards. It’s just like an extra fun thing that we’ve gotten to do in girl Scouts.
You’ve mentioned
Sheryl: that you’re a camp girl. And I understand that your counsel has something interesting I haven’t heard of before that you’re a participant in and that’s competitive canoe.
Can you tell us about that?
Molly: So girl scouts higher of the hudson the Hudson, and there’s a few other councils on the east coast that have competitive girl scout community teams. So I’m part of the kamikaze canoers, which is one of the two. Canoe teams in the heart of the Hudson council? The other one is the Catskill mountain canoers.
So we are a competitive canoe team and we practiced from March to may and we compete in a really big canoe race called a canoe regatta. Which is in Bainbridge, New York and teams from all along the east coast come from people from Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York, New Jersey, all these girl Scouts come together and we compete in a big canoe race.
And it’s so much [00:17:00] fun. And like, there’s a lot of girl scout comradery, like the night before the race, usually not last year, the year before, because. Usually we do swaps with the other teams and we sing some girl Scout songs and we get to meet all these other people. And we stay over at a girl scout camp.
But it’s such a great experience. And I met some really good friends. Like I talked to almost every day on canoeing. And it’s just really fun and really great experience.
Sheryl: You have a lot of connections outside of your troop, within your council and even outside, if your council, how did you make those connections with those girl Scouts?
What can you suggest to help other girls who maybe aren’t feel are feeling a little bit more isolated within their girl scout experience?
Molly: Doing activity that they’re castle. So girl scout, camping, canoeing are the big ones where I’ve made friends that I know will be lifelong friends. Just going to girl scout camp.
Cause something that I did and not a lot of girls did this at least around here in my age group when I went to girl scout camp I didn’t know anyone. And I went to a week away sleep camp and I also didn’t know anyone. So I ha I [00:18:00] had to make new friends. I think like it was going in and not being afraid to make new friends and be yourself and find new friends.
And I kind of apply this to all the other girl scout things I kind of got and do I’m part, I joined my council’s girl advisory team. And so I did that because I wanted to meet other girls Scouts and kind of learn about other girl Scouts and do things. Canoeing, just going and doing things that I want to do, just
not, not because someone else is doing it because I want to do, I think that’s where you meet the people that you want to meet and your new friends, because you’re doing something that you want to do. And just doing stuff like that. And you’ll find your people and you’ll find that people that you want to spend your time with.
Sheryl: Another way that you have connected with other gold award girl Scouts is on your Instagram. You created a template and asked other girls to fill it out about their gold award projects and then shared it. It was such an inspiring little project that you did. And I, I only mean little. In the big, big scheme of things.
But it was such an inspiring project that you did. How did that come about?
Molly: When [00:19:00] I just got started on Instagram, I had maybe like two posts. She just sent me a DM and she’s like, I see that you’re like a fellow girl scout doing her gold award. Good luck with everything you’re going to do. Great. And just because of her doing that whenever I saw like other girl scout gold award accounts, I would just pick, text them and be like, Hey, you’re doing a good job.
And I just kind of had the ideas. Like I kind of want to highlight all these projects. These are all so cool. Like every project I see, I’m just like, wow, this is something that like other girls my age are doing. This is so awesome. I want to share what these other girls are dealing with. The people who follow me and I want them, I just want to spread all these things.
It’s just so cool. The things that other girl Scouts are doing and I was like, love your podcast. I get to hear about all these amazing things, other girl Scouts, are doing just like, I’m going to, I’m going to make little template. I’m going to just highlight all of these girl scouts and I just
find as many accounts as I could. And I DM them. And I was like, Hey, I made this little template. Can I share your project? I mean, it’s just such a good project because everyone’s project is such a cool project. That’s kind of what I love about girl Scouts. That everyone’s gold [00:20:00] award is so cool because everyone’s so passionate about what they’re doing and everyone’s.
Projects are always just so amazing. And it’s so inspiring. So I want to just kind of share that with everyone.
Sheryl: What other girl scout experiences have you had that you’d like to share?
Molly: I’m a volunteer in training with a brownie troop. This is my second year working with them. Their second year brownie.
So I started when they bridged over to. It’s so much fun. I get to help the leaders with planning the activities I’m running the meetings. And it’s this kind of like a mini leader there, even though I have officially earned the VIT pin I’ve been staying with them and I’ve been having so much fun, working with them and working with these younger girls and like helping them run their meetings and like getting to do brownie badges over again.
And just working with them. It’s really fun. I really love it. And then I’m also, a girl board director for my council. And so that’s just been a really interesting experience to learn about like how the inner workings of girl Scouts we’re still on that level and learning like as a girl board director, like how things are done and how decisions are made, what are your plans for the future?
I [00:21:00] recently committed to the city college of environmental science and forestry, and I am going to be attending there this fall as an environmental education and interpretation major. So I’m very excited and I hope that in the future, I will be an environmental educator and I kind of work in like a non-formal institutions, like a museum or a zoo or an aquarium or a nature center.
Sheryl: Following in your grandfather’s footsteps.
Molly: Yes exactly.
Sheryl: Is there anything else I haven’t asked that you’d like to share?
Molly: I think I just want to tell any, you know, future gold, gold award girl Scouts or girls working on their gold award to not give up that, you know, everyone can do it, who wants to do it and just to find something that you’re passionate about and.
Sparks an interest in you as something that you want to share with the world, because the world wants to hear what you want to share, but just make sure it’s something that you are passionate about and you care about because it’ll kind of suck to put 80 hours into a project that you don’t really care about.
So just finding a way to make your project yours and making your project, something that you care about and you want to share with everyone. And also to not get [00:22:00] discouraged because even if there’s setbacks, even if things don’t go your way, you’ll figure it out and your project will be amazing and you’ll get everything done and it will be satisfying that you were able to overcome these challenges.
Sheryl: How do you make your smores?
Molly: I do a pretty classic smores, but my, the thing I do different is I use vegetarian marshmallows because I am vegetarian. So it’s always a struggle. When it’s more season to make sure that I can find marshmallows, that I can eat trader Joe’s usually has vegetarian marshmallows or like, I’ll go to Wegmans to get like the dandies, but the vegetarian marshmallows other than that classic Graham cracker, it has to be like the honey Graham crackers.
I don’t like lemon Graham crackers. Cause I know some people use a cinnamon, but I feel like it’s just not the classics more. And then Hershey’s chocolate vegetarian marshmallows and I like my marshmallow little burnt. And all gooey inside.
Sheryl: Well, thanks for joining us.
Molly: Thank you for having me.
Sheryl: Make sure to click, follow or subscribe so you always know when new episodes are released. And don’t forget to power your passion and conquer your challenges. [00:23:00]
Walter: The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media productions. 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 growwandshare@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.