[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 Gold. Today we have Kyra with us. Hi Kyra.
[00:00:17] Kyra: Hi there.
[00:00:18] Sheryl: Can you tell us about your Girl Scout Gold award project?.
[00:00:22] Kyra: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me. So I started my Gold award when I was a junior in high school. So that was back in 2016. And I wanted to focus my gold award on impacting my community in a long term way.
[00:00:36] Regarding the topic of mental health and mental health education, I decided to kind of do a two-pronged approach for my awards. So I started a club in my high school that I called Stress Less Club, and that was a more like localized effort to educate my peers about stress and kind of how that plays into mental health as well as teaching like tips and tricks for like how to.
[00:01:00] Combat that stress. I would bring in a professional every week, like a dietician or someone who practices yoga and they would donate their time and come to talk with us. So that was really great. And then the second and certainly more labor intensive aspect of my project was the suicide prevention walk.
[00:01:17] I started that same year in. In partnership with the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, the A F S P who’ve been just an incredible partner over these years. And yeah, so I started both my junior year of high school and so proud to say that the walk is still. Going strong. So yeah, that’s where I’m at now.
[00:01:38] Sheryl: And we’ll come back to the walk because it is certainly still going strong.
[00:01:42] I’d like to talk a little bit about the Stress Less Club. How did you find the professionals that you brought in?
[00:01:48] Kyra: It was a lot of networking. Sometimes I would know the type of topic I wanted to center the meeting around and. Then I would kind of search for a professional who fit that topic. So I knew that I wanted to have like a certified dietician or nutritionist come in to talk about different types of foods that could help with stress management.
[00:02:10] And so I knew I wanted to do that. And then I found a professional from like the local. Grocery store. Otherwise, I had some people approach me and say that they wanted to do it, or I had a member of the club say, oh, I have an aunt who does yoga. Or, oh, I have a coworker who does like meditation and art classes together.
[00:02:27] And so I would find some of the professionals that way and they all were really generous, donated their time and came to speak to the group and it was really great.
[00:02:35] Sheryl: How did you get the club off the ground at your school and get participants?
[00:02:39] Kyra: It was a really long paperwork process of actually getting the club itself approved.
[00:02:44] You have to start with identifying an advisor, of course, and kind of like pointing to a need for the club or explaining why that club. Doesn’t already kind of have some sort of niche in the school. So drafting that, pulling together a list of, I think a dozen or 15 individuals at the school who would be willing to be club members.
[00:03:05] So demonstrated interest of course. And then it was basically an approval process starting with the advisor. And then kind of working its way up administration until the club either gets approved or denied. And then once the club is actually approved, you have to start actually doing the planning process for the meetings, which is you know, a whole different process.
[00:03:26] So it did take a bit when I finally got it off the ground, we had pretty good turnout based on, you know, all of my friends and classmates who wanted to come support me as well as we a. Through digital signage in my high school as well as like posters on the wall. So people who were interested and thought it was a neat idea came, I think the first meeting we had something like 35 or 40 students come out, which was really great.
[00:03:50] Not just, not just because it’s a great, it’s a great number for but to come to my, you know, inaugural club meeting, but, but. It showed that there were people my age who were also experiencing that stress, who also like wanted to come to a club where they could learn how to manage that better.
[00:04:08] Sheryl: Who helped you? Who was on your team?
[00:04:10] Kyra: My advisor was my English teacher at the time. He was an English teacher I had early in high school who also had just kind of a wellness mindset and Definitely understood the types of day to day stressors that high school students deal with. And kind of wanted to work with me to create that type of environment and program in high, in our, in my high school.
[00:04:33] Because I feel like there really wasn’t that. Type of emphasis on stress management before. And some of the other clubs, he was probably my main advisor, team member at the school itself. For a while I didn’t really have an executive board, so it was really just me for the most part. Of course, like in terms of support and whatnot, that there was definitely my family and my friends.
[00:04:54] But in terms of the club itself, it was mostly me and my teacher once the approval process was over.
[00:05:02] Sheryl: And what triggered you to choose this as part of your topic for your gold award project?
[00:05:07] Kyra: I definitely knew that I wanted to focus my project on mental health. When I was 13, I was diagnosed with depression and it really kind of, from, there was like a Year to year, if not day to day experience with that particular struggle.
[00:05:25] And in high school I had it. I just had a really difficult time. You know, I remember there was like an entire year where my mom was like picking me up from school every day because I was just in such bad shape every day. Couldn’t make it through a school day. Just really, really hurting. And when I finally started, To do better.
[00:05:48] I realized that part of the struggle of mental health struggles, mental illness is that there’s so much stigma associated with it. You feel like you can’t, you can’t talk with someone. You can’t explain what’s going on with you, or you have to lie and say it’s something else. I realized. I had felt like that and that there’s no reason that anyone should feel that way.
[00:06:12] And I also felt so grateful, I think for, you know, my family and my school at the time who supported me through that really difficult time in my life. And I felt like I really wanted to give back to my community, especially with something that I was so passionate about. So that’s kind of how I started to
[00:06:32] generate those ideas. I started with, well, this is what I want my topic to be, and then. How can I, as an individual impact the most people from there.
[00:06:42] Sheryl: The second part of your project was your walk. Can you share how the walk came about?
[00:06:48] Kyra: The walk was that same year, my junior year of high school. When I was 16, I decided to start this walk for pretty much the same reason I just expressed, which was just I wanted to you know, I felt like the club was great in my high school.
[00:07:03] I was really excited about getting, you know, my peers kind of involved with this sort of stress management element, but I think I wanted to do even more that connected my project with mental health. And so I knew that I wanted to start some kind of walk, but I didn’t really know how to go about that.
[00:07:23] So I’m sure one of the first things I did was literally Google, like suicide prevention walk or mental health walk and. The most prominent type of organization who does that in the field, I would say is the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention. Anyone can start a walk really anywhere they want.
[00:07:38] I was able to do all sorts of paperwork for that. I had the support of my family who helped me kind of get it off the ground in a big way that first year. And. Just kind of build out a really solid team. That first year was definitely pretty small and you know, just kind of finding my footing and like I said, getting it off the ground.
[00:08:00] But really incredible and meaningful work I’ve found.
[00:08:04] Sheryl: And as you mentioned earlier, the walk has continued on past your Gold Award project. Can you tell us what the walk did this last year?
[00:08:13] Kyra: The seventh annual Burlington County out of the darkness walk was this past October 15th, 2022. It was a Saturday morning.
[00:08:23] We raised over $52,000 this year. It’s really kind of, Unbelievable to even hear and say out loud. It’s, it’s really been so incredible. You know, the community has shown year after year that this is an event that they wanna support, they wanna participate in. People really do wanna break this stigma and they wanna share their experience.
[00:08:44] They wanna honor their loved ones. It’s such a, it’s such a powerful day. It is such rewarding work. And it is work. It takes a lot every single year to pull off the event, but, So very meaningful. We have our local politicians come out every year to speak and show their support. We’ve received proclamations over the past couple years.
[00:09:05] One for Mount Laurel my hometown, you know, honoring September as suicide prevention month, people who travel from out of state to come to the walk. So it really seems to have had the community impact that I feel like I was. Seeking when I first got it set up.
[00:09:22] Sheryl: You are much more than a participant.
[00:09:24] You still are part of the organization. How do you balance that? Because this is a big walk now and lots of time, volunteer time involved in it. How do you balance that with your personal life?
[00:09:38] Kyra: So during walk season, but even really in the, in the months, Weeks, months, et cetera, leading up to the event itself.
[00:09:47] My friends, my family, they start to hear about it. They’re like, oh, it’s planning time again. It really is quite the endeavor. It’s become more and more of an endeavor as I have, you know, I most recently graduated college this year was probably the most labor intensive. Effort that I personally have put in, especially because it’s just, I’m, I’m older now.
[00:10:09] I’m 22. I. Was not like away at college. So I really was like boots on the ground doing this work instead of sometimes I had to conduct a lot of things remotely when I was at school. Definitely is a lot of hard work. The planning does usually start in January for a walk that is then October that same year.
[00:10:28] So I kind of feel like it is a really great like hobby of mine. To do this type of work and put on this event, and it’s something that I really do love to do. So I think that it’s pretty easy to balance it with my personal life. I feel like it is such a worthy cause and something I really do look forward to working on every year.
[00:10:47] Sheryl: Looking back on starting the club at your school and starting this walk, what impact has that made for you over the last few years?
[00:10:56] Kyra: It’s made such an incredible impact on me. I think I. You know, learn and receive the most incredible stories, information, experiences from these people that I interact with every year, not just the walk participants or the speakers at the walk, but even, you know, The local business door that I knock on seeing if they’re interested in sponsoring or if they’re interested in attending the walk and they say, you know, maybe it has nothing to do with their business, but they say, oh, I lost my father to suicide.
[00:11:27] Oh, I know my, my colleague, you know, their daughter just passed away. Like, it’s, it’s that where it’s this really resounding knowledge that this impacts people everywhere, every day. And that makes me feel like this work. Worth it time and time again. I couldn’t, when I was, you know, when I was a junior in high school, when I was 16 years old, I could have never imagined that seven years later I would still be running this walk.
[00:11:52] And I feel like it’s because seven years later I still need this walk. People in my community still need this walk and If I can continue to remind people, like, you know, I always go back to that somewhat cliched saying of it’s okay not to be okay. If I can remind people of that, you know, in this work every year, then that is, that is more than enough for me, honestly.
[00:12:15] Sheryl: And do you have a special memory from your activities that you’d like to share?
[00:12:19] Kyra: My best friend was able to attend the walk for the first time. This year. And so it was really great to see her and as she’s someone who’s really supported me over the past, you know, several years kind of as all my friends have with my own personal mental health.
[00:12:40] So it was really amazing for her to be there. Especially this year, the year after Covid, you know, during Covid we obviously couldn’t hold the walk. So the year following, so not this. 2021 when we had the walk last October. It was such a boom of people, honestly, who even though we had missed the year before, there were people and they came back in droves the following year because you know, as so many understand, COVID has made mental health like such a hot topic and at the forefront of everyone’s mind.
[00:13:14] And just how isolating that experience was for everyone.
[00:13:18] Sheryl: What other Girl Scout memories do you have to share?
[00:13:21] Kyra: I started when I was a daisy when I was five. I. Did Girl Scouts for 13 years until I earned my award. So it was really such a huge part of my growing up. Some of the friends that I have to this day were in my Girl Scout troop.
[00:13:38] I made so many incredible memories with these girls who I either knew from class or maybe I didn’t know at all, and developed. Amazing relationships with them. Not to mention my mother was my troop leader the entire time. I credit, I think a lot of our closeness and our bonding from that time that we spent together and how that was such a a shared.
[00:14:04] Not just activity, but you know, girl Scouts is about sisterhood. Like, you know, yes, it’s my mother, but it was also like, that is my, that’s my Girl Scouts sister. It made us very close. I felt that way about my other, like the other co co-leaders who I had over the years. Like just a really strong sense of, you know, Friendship and solidarity with these people.
[00:14:24] I remember what, like, one of the best memories I had was we did a, a sleepover at the Franklin Institute in Philadelphia. Just so incredibly fun, like one of those awesome experiences that like you don’t get every day and you don’t get, you know, for any reason. So really exciting to be able to kind of do those fun activities, experiences, trips.
[00:14:48] With those girls that you’ve, you know, spent so much time, not just spending time with, but you know, like doing service with and, and, and bonding with and spending time with each other’s families. One more memory. Is around the holidays, especially when our troop was like at the biggest, maybe like 12 or 15 girls.
[00:15:06] We would do a big cookie swap in December. So we would each make like a favorite cookie recipe and make enough for. The entire group. So maybe make two dozen cookies or something and then we would have like our little holiday get together and we would all exchange cookies and we would like listen to holiday music.
[00:15:24] And sometimes we would do like a white elephant or a Pollyanna situation, just like really great. Great times, great experiences. Yeah. I, I really do look back so fondly on my time as a Girl Scout.
[00:15:38] Sheryl: Do you have a favorite cookie that you remember from that cookie exchange?
[00:15:41] Kyra: Not to be this person, but it probably was the one that I made.
[00:15:45] I love the coconut macarons with like the Hershey kiss in the middle. Can’t go wrong. Still an all time favorite like Christmas cookie at my house too.
[00:15:54] Sheryl: So, so does that mean you’re a Samoa caramel light girl?
[00:15:57] Kyra: Okay. I really, I mean, it has to be. That’s probably my second favorite cookie. I really am a lemonades girl at heart.
[00:16:05] Sheryl: All right. You got a thin mint girl here.
[00:16:07] Kyra: Yeah. Okay.
[00:16:08] Sheryl: Hahahaha. So you mentioned that you recently graduated. What are your plans for the future?
[00:16:14] Kyra: So I just graduated from Loyola University, Maryland in Baltimore, and I graduated with a degree in communications, specifically public relations and advertising. And I double minored in political science and marketing.
[00:16:28] So I have a lot of interests and at the moment I’m working in crisis communications at an advertising agency in Philadelphia. So that’s the current plan. I really like what I’m doing so far. It’s like issues in reputation management for. Companies, organizations, individuals. So that work is really neat and it’s a lot of what I worked really hard for in college.
[00:16:50] So that’s exciting. Down the line, I’m not really sure. I’ve always considered, you know, or wondered how I could make. The walk into something that I could do long term as a career. And what I’ve come to is, honestly, it doesn’t need to be, that it can be my absolute most favorite, like closest to my heart volunteer work that I do.
[00:17:12] And honestly that’s great for me. So doing crisis communications right now, but we’ll see what comes next.
[00:17:19] Sheryl: Is there anything else that you’d like to share with the audience?.
[00:17:22] Kyra: The A F S P has community walks and campus walks, so one’s on college campuses all over the country. New Jersey has them, where I’m located, New Jersey has them all over.
[00:17:33] We have like more than 15 walks in the state. It’s crazy. But there really are located everywhere and you really can get involved like as much or as little as you’d like, or even just showing up the day of and participating. If anyone has the means to participate. And out of the darkness campus or community walk, I cannot speak highly enough of it.
[00:17:56] If, if you have no connection to the cause, if you have every connection to the cause, it is such a beautiful day of hope and healing and community. So really just kind of my plug for the A F S P and definitely check out a walk if there’s one near.
[00:18:12] Sheryl: How do you make your s’mores?
[00:18:14] Kyra: Definitely over a campfire.
[00:18:15] I have great memories of the summertime going to my friend’s house, like over her fire pit. So gotta roast the marshmallow first. I kind of let it go up in flames and then blow it out, but I know that that’s controversial. And then graham cracker chocolate on it. Stick with the marshmallow graham cracker.
[00:18:36] Slide the stick out. Smore.
[00:18:39] Sheryl: Well, thank you so much for joining us today.
[00:18:41] Kyra: Of course. Thank you so much for having me.
[00:18:43] Sheryl: Make sure to click follow or subscribe so you always know when new episodes are released and power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:18:54] Walter: The Hearts of Gold Podcast is brought to you by the Grow and Share Network produced by off the Walter Media Productions.
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