[00:00:00] Walter: The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media productions.
[00:00:13] Sheryl: Welcome to hearts of gold today. We have Celestina with us. Hi.
[00:00:19] Celestina: Hi.
[00:00:20] Sheryl: Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:24] Celestina: I decided to improve several aspects of a local food pantry that I have grown up volunteering with in order to allow the west Knox fish pantry to keep feeding the Knoxville community for many years to come, I equipped them with digital tools and updated the interior of the pantry.
[00:00:40] The first phase of my project included a deep cleaning of the pantry, my team of volunteers and I scrubbed and painted the walls and floor built a new stand for the conveyor belt and replaced light fixtures and broken. The next phase of my project consisted of developing an online presence for the pantry.
[00:00:59] I launched an updated social media accounts at least once a month. And I designed a custom website for the pantry. Lastly, I designed and put together several other resources, including nutritional suggestions of food, bagging poster guide. Volunteer manual and posters and flyers to promote the pantry to both volunteers and people in need.
[00:01:18] Sheryl: How did you choose west knocks as your partner?
[00:01:22] Celestina: I’ve been volunteering with them for as long as I can remember. And my dad is also the treasurer of the board. So they’re really close to me and I believe in their goal to feed the Knoxville community.
[00:01:36] Sheryl: What kind of feedback have you gotten from the volunteers?
[00:01:40] Celestina: They are very pleased with what I’ve done. And one of the things that they’ve most enjoyed is the conveyor belt stand. I didn’t anticipate how much it would mean to them, but the elderly volunteers we’re especially grateful not to have to bend down as far to load the food into the bags.
[00:01:55] Sheryl: Can you tell us how the conveyor belt works?
[00:01:57] Celestina: What we do is we put paper bags on one end and then. Volunteers on either side of the conveyor belt, they’ll fill it with cans and other items as we roll it down the conveyor belt. And then we put them on the shelves.
[00:02:12] Sheryl: You also updated their marketing materials. What kind of updates did you do to those?
[00:02:19] Celestina: I started an Instagram account and a Facebook account because the pantry didn’t have a digital presence before this, so I’ve been updating those bi-monthly or monthly with pictures from the pantry or announcements or seasonal messages.
[00:02:36] And the website that I designed has information about the pantry and. Pictures and just the story of how it started.
[00:02:47] Sheryl: What kind of changes has the pantry seen as a result of your efforts?
[00:02:51] Celestina: The new lights and the new shelves stuff like that, make the pantry more safer. And the conveyor belt stand also makes it safer and more functional.
[00:03:01] The social media accounts and the website, make it a lot more visible to people who might be looking into volunteering with them. And also the volunteers that I recruited to help me with my project. Those are new people who have been brought in and now know about the pantry, the website and the volunteer manual, make it a lot easier for new volunteers to know what to do.
[00:03:25] And it really streams streamlines the process so that everyone knows the process of bagging food and delivering.
[00:03:33] Sheryl: You talked about the team members that you brought in. Can you tell us about the team that you had for your gold award project?
[00:03:39] Celestina: I had everyone from current volunteers like the secretary and the president of the
[00:03:47] fish volunteer committee. And I also had people from my church, fellow girl Scouts, and just people who heard about it from their church who is involved with the pantry or friends and family.
[00:03:59] Sheryl: Obviously your team helped you with construction in addition to a construction. What else did your team help you with?
[00:04:05] Celestina: I needed help with the volunteer manual from volunteers who help with the pantry. So I, my team gave me advice and like, My social media posts just like led me through everything that I created besides the construction.
[00:04:21] Sheryl: And as you revamp the volunteer manual and updated the social media pieces, what did you learn about working with a food pantry that might be helpful with, for others that are working with food pantries?
[00:04:33] Celestina: When we were doing the renovations, we had to plan it out so that there would be the least amount of food in the pantry while we were Moving things around. So the timing of everything was really important because we didn’t want to disrupt the functions of the pantry. And we were able to do that.
[00:04:51] Sheryl: What is your favorite memory of your project?
[00:04:54] Celestina: The renovations, because painting the walls with everyone and cleaning and that whole process, it was really tiring and it took a lot of hours of work, but it was a really fun.
[00:05:04] Sheryl: What was your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:05:08] Celestina: Getting volunteers and finding people to help because at first it seemed like I wouldn’t have enough people, but that my church ended up posting the sign up on their Facebook page. In the end, I had more than enough volunteers. And then the second, most difficult challenge was working with the pantries timeline because their group of volunteers only meets quarterly.
[00:05:33] So before we can make big decisions, I had to wait for one of those meetings to come by. But Even though this slowed me down a few times, I could adapt my schedule to theirs.
[00:05:43] Sheryl: What did you learn about the girl scout gold award process that you didn’t know before that would be helpful for others going through this process for interviews?
[00:05:52] Celestina: A piece of advice would be that make sure you put a lot of effort into your. Report and proposal online, because if you write really meaningful answers and you include a lot of information the interviews will be really easy. If you just write everything out online and give them all the information they need.
[00:06:16] You won’t have any trouble with the interview.
[00:06:18] Sheryl: I concur as a reader of those reports, the more information, the better you can’t over-explain. What other girl scout activities have you been involved in?
[00:06:27] Celestina: Recently some of my favorite activities have been backpacking. I’ve been to a wilderness camp at our local camp. And also I went on a three day backpacking trip was a group of girl Scouts.
[00:06:40] Sheryl: What are your future plans?
[00:06:41] Celestina: I really like science and math. So I think I’d like to major in biomedical engineering or something like that in college. I want to do research.
[00:06:51] Sheryl: How do you make your smores?
[00:06:53] Celestina: After they’re warm I like to set them on fire for a few seconds and then blow them out because it’s much quicker than waiting for them to get brown.
[00:07:02] Sheryl: Well, thanks for joining us today.
[00:07:04] Celestina: Thank you.
[00:07:05] 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.
[00:07:18] Walter: The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media productions.
[00:07:25] 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. 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.
[00:07:46] That’s youtube.com/Sheryl, the letter M, Robinson. Take care, and we’ll see you next time.