[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 we have Rachel with us. Hi, Rachel.
[00:00:15] Rachel: Hi, how are you doing?
[00:00:17] Sheryl: I’m good. Thanks. Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:22] Rachel: I constructed a 24 and a half foot long trophy case made out of steel tubing, glass shelving and led lighting.
[00:00:30] For the trophies at my high school JROTC.
[00:00:34] Sheryl: What had you interested in this project?
[00:00:37] Rachel: The program at my school had a lot of trophies that were just sitting around on folding tables. They were in closets. They were on top of shelves getting dusty and they weren’t really showcasing the true effort that it took the cadets to earn them.
[00:00:56] So I decided to honor their hard work by creating this trophy case.
[00:01:01] Sheryl: And how does the JROTC earn these trophies?
[00:01:05] Rachel: The cadets can earn these trophies through a plethora of after school activities from things like rifle team to drill and exhibition to Raiders. There’s so many opportunities throughout the school year to earn these trophies.
[00:01:20] And the hard work that’s put into it behind the scenes, a lot of people don’t realize. And so these trophies mean a lot more to the cadets than just. Like plastic and metal, like it’s, it’s a lot of hard work and dedication that goes into earning these.
[00:01:36] Sheryl: Can you share one of the activities that you’re involved with and give us an idea of some of that behind the scenes?
[00:01:42] Rachel: So, I’m involved with Raiders, which is a more physical After school activity and the jerry to see that cadets can do so readers is comprised of 5 different events. So there’s a 5 K run. There’s rope bridge, there’s tire flip, there is a sprint drag carry where you have to. Sprint down to a cone, and then you.
[00:02:07] Drag and drag weights down to the cone, and then you have to carry kettlebells all while sprinting and giving it your all. And then there is a cross country rescue, which is a half mile where you carry rucks with weights in them and you also have a litter with weight on that as well. And you have to run half mile with your team in order to complete the event.
[00:02:33] And. We practice every day after school and for an hour and a half, sometimes more, if we’re like, really getting into one of the activities that we’re practicing, we spend a good amount of time, not only just practicing physically, but also working on strategy and like, talking with your teammate and team bonding, things like that to help the team grow stronger.
[00:03:00] Sheryl: How does the scoring work for the events that you’re involved in? And who do you compete against?
[00:03:05] Rachel: For the 5k, it is the fastest time wins for that event. And then for all of them, it’s like the fastest time. Score is the least amount of points, and then at the end, the scorekeepers tally up what each school has earned.
[00:03:22] So if they get like, 1st place, 3rd place, 5th place, and like, 2 2nd places, they average out those scores. those places to decide who gets first overall, second overall, third overall, things like that. And we compete with other schools in our district. So other high schools with JROTC programs also participate in Raiders as well.
[00:03:45] Sheryl: How did you get involved in JROTC?
[00:03:47] Rachel: So, my sister was involved in for her high school years, and when she was talking about the things that she did in class and after school activities that she did, it just sounded like a lot of fun in a community that I wanted to join. So. I decided to list that for one of my top classes
[00:04:07] or when I joined high school.
[00:04:09] Sheryl: How does JROTC and Girl Scouts cross pollinate for you?
[00:04:13] Rachel: Girl Scouts is all about leadership and leading others and setting the best example and I believe that JROTC also is the same. It helps people learn their leadership skills and it really shows like how leading youth leadership can affect other youths.
[00:04:31] and inspire them to be their best.
[00:04:34] Sheryl: Can you tell us a little bit more about what the shelving unit that you built and who you worked with and how it came together?
[00:04:44] Rachel: The trophy case that we built we planned. We planned it to be a hardy structure so it wouldn’t be like a wooden case that just falls down after a while.
[00:04:55] I was able to work with someone I know who is a welder and we worked together. I was able to also weld a little bit because I have a little bit of welding experience and so I was able to help weld that together. We had a lot of donations from the community. There was a local glass place that I reach out to for the glass shelving and they donated.
[00:05:17] All of the glass shelving, which was over 2, 000 dollars worth in materials, which was a really big help for our plan for my project, because. Without them, we are the budget for the project would have been a lot higher. And so. With that in mind, we sent a lot of thank yous out after with working with a bunch of different people in the community.
[00:05:40] We we worked with the metal place. We went to the metal supermarkets in Orlando, Florida. And they were able to give us a discount off of the. we used. And yeah, so it and support that really h together. Who was on your they help you? So I had t Reached my vision for, like, what the trophy case would look like.
[00:06:15] They kept added support. They also helped pay for some of the materials as well. And material donations. And I had my Gold Award liaison also help me out, keep me on track. And my family was also a really big motivator for me as well, as well as like the welder that I had on my team. And all the other different youth that were able to help me out.
[00:06:41] So it wasn’t just like a one person project. There was a lot of help from other youth as well within the JROTC program and other scouters that I know.
[00:06:50] Sheryl: How did you choose your project advisor? And what special skills did they bring to your project for you?
[00:06:57] Rachel: The project advisor for my project was the Army instructor for the R, the JOTC program.
[00:07:06] And he really helped out deciding like where in the classroom it would go and kind of how long they wanted to make it, and like the capacity they wanted to have because we had over 130 trophies and so we knew we would get new trophies each year, so we wanted to make sure that. It wouldn’t fill up the trophy case.
[00:07:27] As soon as we put it in, we had extra rooms for expansion.
[00:07:30] Sheryl: What was your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:07:34] Rachel: Installing the trophy case in the classroom. There was the JROTC classroom is kind of comprised of two rooms. So there was a meeting in one of the rooms that we had to go through when we were.
[00:07:46] I had other people help me out. When we were carrying in the. Trophy case, like frame into the classroom, there was like people in the way and we kind of had to use our leadership skills to kind of help them cooperate with us. And we had a lot I had a lot of help installing my installing the trophy case.
[00:08:08] And that is a blessing I’d rather have more people than too little, but there was a lot of people that were standing around and I felt like. They could have been doing something else, but there was really nothing else they could have been doing because there wasn’t, since we’re working with glass, we don’t want to overcrowd because then we would, we don’t want to drop any of the panes or anything.
[00:08:32] So that was definitely a challenge was trying to find things for all of the volunteers to do to still feel helpful and still help out in the project.
[00:08:40] Sheryl: What’s a favorite memory from your project?
[00:08:42] Rachel: Having people over in the garage that we constructed the trophy case in everyone just came together and they were able to learn some metalworking skills for a lot of people that don’t get the opportunity to normally do that and seeing them being able to do work with the different machines and things like that while still staying safe was a really big memory for me.
[00:09:08] Sheryl: What is something that you learned about the Gold Award process itself that could be helpful for future Gold Award Girl Scouts?
[00:09:15] Rachel: The Go Gold website is very helpful in helping track your project’s progress with the hours tracking and also it keeps it very organized so you know, you don’t have a bunch of papers laying around with your proposal and things like that.
[00:09:34] It keeps it all in one space and It helps you track easier, like track your hours and your materials that you’re using. So then when you get to the end of your project, you know how many hours you need left and you know how many, how many resources you use.
[00:09:51] Sheryl: What other Girl Scout experiences have you had?
[00:09:54] Rachel: I was able to go on one of the Girl Scout destinations trips to the Boundary Waters in Minnesota in 2022. I was very fortunate to have been chosen in 2020, but unfortunately with COVID. The trip got postponed and then again in 2021, it got postponed again. So I was very fortunate to be able to go in 2022 and I met so many girl scouts from all across the country there while still enjoying the outdoors and honing in my camping skills and things like that.
[00:10:24] Sheryl: In case someone isn’t familiar with what the boundary waters destination is, can you give us a little bit more detail about what you did during that trip?
[00:10:32] Rachel: The boundary waters in Minnesota was basically a 7 day canoe trip. If you are a, in like middle school, or it would have been a 12 day trip if you were in high school.
[00:10:45] So, I did the 7 day trip because it was my 8th grade year that I did it in. So, we basically split up into different crews and we were able to canoe in the different lakes in northern Minnesota. That bordered between the United States and Canada, and we were able to see some really pretty views and hike around and paddle in the waters.
[00:11:10] And it was a really pretty memory for me.
[00:11:13] Sheryl: Did you have to carry the canoes through any of I forget what they’re called. But where you get dry creek beds?
[00:11:20] Rachel: Yes, so we had to portage our canoes through the different trails. Because the not all the lakes in Minnesota are connected. So you do have to portage the canoes.
[00:11:31] And so each of the girls in our crew had multiple chances to be able to portage the canoes in between the different lakes. And it was a really good experience that I probably wouldn’t have had anywhere else. And how heavy is a canoe? The canoes aren’t super heavy. All of the girls were able to pick it up even if they weren’t as built.
[00:11:51] So I would say probably no more than, like, 100 pounds. Like we had help. And when you’re portaging, if you ever got tired, one of the girls would come and bridge the canoe so you could have a little rest while still being able to continue on the trail.
[00:12:08] Sheryl: Did you stay someplace central or did you have to have all your supplies with you?
[00:12:13] Rachel: So, we did have to have all of our supplies with us. So, it was kind of like a backpacking trip. And so it was really as someone who backpacks a lot around Florida, it was really nice to be able to go up in the boundary waters with a lot cooler weather and seeing a lot of different plants and animals that I wouldn’t normally see down here.
[00:12:33] It was really nice to have a backpack experience that I’ve never had before. And so it was really nice to have a backpack experience that I’ve never had before.
[00:12:38] Sheryl: You are a part of Citrus Council. You mentioned Orlando earlier. What is your favorite thing about your council?
[00:12:46] Rachel: My council puts out a lot of fun activities and we really help make sure that all of the different girls in the council are represented.
[00:12:57] Unlike we do a lot of stem activities, sometimes we do different, like, roller skating activities and things like that. It really helps bring the Girl Scout community and this council together by doing these different activities that are really for anyone. What do you have plans for in your future? I would like to attend college.
[00:13:17] I’m not sure which one yet. I’m still looking into my options, but I do plan to go into the ROTC program in college to enlist as an officer in the military. And so I plan to study to become a meteorologist. I’m really interested in the weather and I like math. So. All the STEM activities and stuff that my counsel does really like.
[00:13:40] relates into what I want to do when I get older.
[00:13:43] Sheryl: What else have you learned from Girl Scouts that has informed the direction that you’re, you’re planning your life to take?
[00:13:49] Rachel: Girl Scouts has become very STEM oriented with like the new STEM badges that came out with robotics and coding and things like that.
[00:13:57] So it helps shape like different opportunities. I was able to do like a coding course one time, and I learned that coding wasn’t for me, but it really helps to Expand your horizon and to do things that you normally wouldn’t plan on doing. And it really helps shape the direction that you want to go.
[00:14:15] What else would you like to share with the audience? Anyone who wants to be able to do their gold award should be able to find the resources that they need to because in the end, it’s a really rewarding process.
[00:14:26] Sheryl: How do you make your s’mores?
[00:14:29] Rachel: I like to put them in the fire until they get golden brown.
[00:14:33] But sometimes when they burn. It’s all right. I still eat them anyway, and I like to put them on dark chocolate and the graham crackers are the best part.
[00:14:42] Sheryl: Well, thanks so much for joining me today.
[00:14:44] Rachel: Thank you.
[00:14:45] Sheryl: Make sure to click follow or subscribe. So you always know when new episodes are released. Power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:14:56] 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
[00:15:06] 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.