[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.
[00:00:10] Sheryl: Welcome to Hearts of Gold. Today I have Neha with us. Hi Neha. Can you tell us about your Girl Scout Gold Ward project?
[00:00:19] Neha: So my Girl Scout Gold Ward project was mainly centered around dogs and trying to solve the problem of overcrowded shelters.
[00:00:27] And I know many people when addressing this issue tend to like promote adoption and trying to get dogs out of shelters, which While I do think it’s a good idea, I wanted to stop, I wanted to address one of the root causes of overcrowded shelters, which is dogs getting lost from their homes and winding up in shelters because they have no place to go.
[00:00:45] And that’s where my non profit came in. So I started PawPrint’s non profit so that I could raise awareness for the use of microchips and mainly GPS tracking collars. That way, for dog owners, if they ever lost track of their dog, they could use an app that’s connected to their caller in order to, in order to find their dog.
[00:01:05] They have the real location at all times, which makes it a lot easier to find them. And to spread my project, I used social media like Instagram and Facebook, and I made brochures with my cause, and I spoke at some local shelters and dog bakeries in order to promote awareness.
[00:01:20] Sheryl: What personal connection do you have to this project?
[00:01:23] Neha: Well, for starters, I love dogs. I have three of my own. Two of them are seniors that we rescued from dog shelters. What motivated me to do this project was my last dog, Aggie. She was We got her before, the night before she was scheduled to be euthanized at an overcrowded shelter simply because there just wasn’t enough space and my family and I suspect that she was, a dog that got lost from somewhere because she was potty trained, like she knew how to behave like an in house dog.
[00:01:52] And so we thought there are so many dogs that were, that are in this situation simply because they get lost from their homes and don’t have anywhere else to go. And so I wanted to help try to stop those dogs from getting lost so shelters don’t get overcrowded and dogs aren’t losing their lives for no reason.
[00:02:07] Sheryl: What are some of the information that you included in your educational materials that might be interesting to our audience?
[00:02:16] Neha: A lot of people when getting their dogs microchipped actually do it incorrectly. Like, they’ll go to the vet and they’ll get the dog microchipped. But then they forget to register the microchip with a national database, which depletes the use of a microchip, meaning that it can’t be used if your dog gets lost and somebody finds it.
[00:02:34] And then for tracking collars, I also used, like, examples of companies that sell them, all that have different deals and rates to find, so people could find what would work best for their dogs.
[00:02:45] Sheryl: What was your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:02:49] Neha: Probably my fear of public speaking.
[00:02:52] What I, so part of my project involved speaking at shelters and dog bakeries. And at one of the shelters I spoke at, I was allowed to come to their volunteer orientations and talk about my cause and everything that I was planning on doing. But it, it kind of scared me because while these orientations are small, it’s still, it’s still weird, like speaking in front of people.
[00:03:14] And, Honestly, while it may not seem super specific just to overcome it, I just, I just went for it. I made sure I had a script ahead of time that I knew what I was talking about. And then I just, I just jumped in kind of like learning to swim. And over time it became a lot easier to do those orientations.
[00:03:30] And eventually it was just felt like it was just an every other Sunday thing to me.
[00:03:34] Sheryl: That’s awesome. And I bet you, you wouldn’t have done the podcast before that either then.
[00:03:38] Neha: Yeah. My Gold Award project definitely helped me with my fear of public speaking.
[00:03:42] Sheryl: Who was on your team and how did they help you?
[00:03:44] Neha: Well, my biggest supporter was my mom. She’s the one who helped me build up her shores and gave me encouragement when things got tough because things, it definitely was a rough start in the beginning. And then my, my project advisor Kelly Carey, she was really helpful because so she’s on the board of one of the shelters that I work with and she was the one who was able to help me get those volunteer orientations.
[00:04:07] Like the opportunity to speak at those. And then, and then my council advisor, Marty Hall, she was also really great. Always responding to her emails, always just giving me encouragement and support. Always helping me think of ideas to continue with the projects. I couldn’t have done it without them.
[00:04:22] Sheryl: Do you have a special memory from your project you’d like to share?
[00:04:25] Neha: Going to the dog shelters because I always got to play with the dogs while giving my, while giving my speech about my project. And so that was, that was always the best part of it.
[00:04:34] Sheryl: What other Girl Scout activities have you been involved with?
[00:04:37] Neha: Well, my troop and I like to do a lot of, well, we like to, well, we like to be outdoors a lot.
[00:04:41] So, like, we’ve done, like, camping trips at the end of every year, multiple years. And then, like, together three years ago, we earned our silver award by like, for, by hosting clothing drives to donate to teenagers in foster care. And then through the school year, since we’re the oldest members of our service unit, we like to host dances and tea parties for all the younger girls.
[00:05:01] And it’s, it’s, it’s a lot of fun to watch, to watch them have fun.
[00:05:04] Sheryl: What motivated you to create the non profit as part of your Gold Award project?
[00:05:08] Neha: The non profit, I came up with that idea when I had tried to figure out a way to get my message out there. And I mean, a registered legal non profit definitely looks a lot better than a random social media account.
[00:05:20] And then it was really my, it was really my dog, Aggie, that gave me the motivation to go ahead with that non profit and put that information out there.
[00:05:28] Sheryl: What are your plans for the future of your non profit?
[00:05:31] Neha: I still plan on doing volunteer orientations, and actually we’ve just ordered more brochures to come in the mail, so I’m still going to hand them out to some of these places.
[00:05:40] And then when I go off to college, I have a younger sister, so hopefully she’ll take that over. I just want to make sure it can last as long as, as long as possible.
[00:05:48] Sheryl: And what are your future plans?
[00:05:51] Neha: I graduate this year, so while I’m not sure where I want to go to college yet, I do want to, I do want to pursue a pre dental track, and my goal is to, my goal is to become a dentist someday.
[00:06:01] Sheryl: What motivates that decision?
[00:06:04] Neha: The reason I wanted to become a dentist was, well, I’ve always known I wanted to do something medical related since I was in elementary school, but I settled on dentistry because I feel like it’s a big part of health that’s overlooked. Like a lot of people talk about, you know, like your heart health or even like your gut health, but nobody talks about the mouth, even though it’s really important because if not taken care of properly, it can lead to other issues with your heart and your guts and even your bones.
[00:06:29] Sheryl: How did you balance working on your Goldwar project and school and your other activities while you were doing that?
[00:06:36] Neha: Making a schedule was very important for me. Like I always, I always allotted like a few hours for a few days of the week for time to work on my project. Whether that would be creating a social media post, or like fixing my brochures, or reaching out to people trying to schedule the next volunteer orientations.
[00:06:54] And all the orientations were on Sundays, so I already knew like Sunday was my orientation time. And like knowing the block of the day that I was going to work on stuff helped me plan my school and activities around it, so that I could get everything done in time.
[00:07:09] Sheryl: What did you learn about the Gold Award process itself that you didn’t know and could be helpful for future Gold Award Grail Scouts?
[00:07:16] Neha: The main thing I learned is that it’s, it’s going to be hard. There are definitely going to be some areas or parts of your project that didn’t work out the way you wanted to or not going to work out at all. Like, for example, one of my original plans was to reach out to collar companies, see if I could partner with them and maybe get a discount.
[00:07:33] On the brochures that I handed out to potential owners, but I reached out to some caller companies. My project advisor reached out to the caller company. She had a connection with, but we didn’t get replies from anybody. So we ended up having to scratch the idea. And the main part is that it’s not going to work out the way you want to.
[00:07:51] Something may not, but the process is so worth it in the end.
[00:07:55] Sheryl: You mentioned improved public speaking, what, how else did you grow through the Gold Award project?
[00:08:02] Neha: My Gold Award project really helped me with time management because I did the whole project during my junior year, which is definitely the hardest year of high school.
[00:08:11] And so I learned how to manage everything I had on my plate and create times to work on my non profit versus my schoolwork or attend any extracurricular activities I had to. Thank you.
[00:08:22] Sheryl: What else would you like to share with the audience?
[00:08:24] Neha: For any future Girl Scouts or Girl Scouts about to enter high school or are considering working on their Gold Award, I would say just do it.
[00:08:32] Even though, even though it’s hard, it’s amaz it’s amazing once you get through the process and it’s really worth it in the end. There are a lot of benefits to doing your Gold Award.
[00:08:40] Sheryl: How do you make your s’mores?
[00:08:42] Neha: This might be weird, but the marshmallow’s gotta be a little burnt for me. And then the chocolate, I usually, maybe, I usually don’t mess with the chocolate.
[00:08:51] Just got to stick it in between the graham crackers and just eat it quickly.
[00:08:54] Sheryl: Well, thanks for joining us today.
[00:08:56] Neha: Thank you for having me.
[00:08:58] Sheryl: Make sure to click follow or subscribe. So you always know when new episodes are released, power, your passion. And conquer your challenges.
[00:09:08] Walter: Thank you for listening. If you’d like to be on the show to share your story of how you earned your gold award, reach out and send an email to growandshare@outlook.com. Be sure to catch up on our previous shows on any of your favorite podcasting platforms, as well as view the full video versions at youtube.com/SherylMRobinson. Thanks again for listening, and we’ll see you next time.