[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.
[00:00:14] Sheryl: Welcome to Hearts of Gold. Today we have Katie with us. Hi Katie.
[00:00:18] Katie: Hi everyone. I’m so happy to be here today.
[00:00:21] Sheryl: Can you tell us about your Girl Scout Gold Award project? .
[00:00:25] Katie: I worked with a community partner in my hometown of Atlantic, Georgia to create a contest for elementary school children to create art. And then we ultimately turned those designs that we received into a series of murals along a local path.
[00:00:41] Sheryl: What inspired your project?
[00:00:43] Katie: By a similar thing that I did in elementary school where I was picked to be a mural artist along this another part of that trail. And it was such a meaningful experience for me to have my artwork in the public, you know, in the public area for people to walk by and see while they’re running or jogging or whatever.
[00:01:02] And it was so meaningful to me to have my art in the community that I just wanted to give that to the next generation
[00:01:08] Sheryl: of kids. For those in our audience that aren’t familiar with this pathway that runs around Georgia, can you explain what the area is like and why you chose this area for your project?
[00:01:20] Katie: Atlanta is a big, you know, metropolitan area. Lots of people, lots of cars. The traffic is just a mess. So this path runs along interstate 400 and the idea. To kind of hop off the interstate at some point, you know, whenever in your day and just take a nice little trail through scenery. Luckily, even though we have lots of people and lots of everything in Atlanta, we do have some great scenery, some lovely trees.
[00:01:47] And so the idea of this path is that you can just take a moment from your busy day and really enjoy the nature that we have. That’s sometimes a little bit tucked.
[00:01:56] Sheryl: Many people when they think about murals, think about the side of a building or something like that. Where are your murals?
[00:02:05] Katie: They are underneath this giant, like, like highway, road, whatever.
[00:02:10] So there’s these giant columns, these like concrete columns. And so the artwork are along, they’re like six feet tall and a few feet wide. And so, A series of eight of them underneath supporting this large road. And so it’s like you walk underneath the road and see them kind of in a gallery as you’re walking off to the side.
[00:02:33] Sheryl: And when you participated in your project in fifth grade that inspired this, where were those picture?
[00:02:40] Katie: In an open part of the the trail kind of in like a more green like open air setting. And those ones were actually, those were made of metal. They weren’t euro, so they were just more simple designs.
[00:02:54] And the amazing part about this project is that we were able to do them. Through painting. So we blocked out these, the designs kind of like in large scale. And then we invited the kids that actually designed them over to help us fill in all of the paints. So the beautiful thing about these is that they’re colorful and they’re just rich, and they’re just you.
[00:03:16] They’re just so much fun to look at as you’re walking past. They just catch your eye.
[00:03:20] Sheryl: Can you talk about the process for choosing the mural?
[00:03:24] Katie: I was just trying to think of something that would be, we could interact with the kids to do. So the, the project that I was originally done did, it was a, you designed it and then it was made out of metal.
[00:03:37] So somebody else, you know, carved it in, that kind of thing, which is awesome. But I wanted to think of something that would be interactive that the kids can be involved and also could bring in some really like lovely color into an area of the path that was not. Quite so colorful. And so that’s how I had this idea to do these, these giant paintings instead where you could really see the full picture of what was in this kid’s imagination.
[00:04:01] And all of the colors that came within. Who was on your team? My team was l Buckhead, which was a local organization that focuses on bringing greenery and appreciating nature in Atlanta. I had my Girl Scout troop 1 14 61. That was at my side. I had teachers at my school a local council person.
[00:04:22] So it was all sorts of people that came together. And it was, it was a wonderful experie.
[00:04:28] Sheryl: What was the most satisfying part of your project?
[00:04:31] Katie: The day that we were able to actually do the murals there ended up being a lot of bumps in the road because of Covid and all of that. So the original project was kind of more of like a event kind of thing where we were gonna invite people from the community, not just the kids.
[00:04:46] And so it was gonna be a whole thing and it wasn’t so much gonna be focused on the actual painting. We weren’t, we were gonna actually do that kind of on our own. So that was like the original idea and it kind of shifted into. Let’s, we can’t, we can’t do that. We can’t gather physically in 2020. So we postponed it.
[00:05:05] We did, we did all that. We refigured it a couple times as everything changed. And so the final project we ended up having was two different days where we invited. A small group of kids cuz like we didn’t want everyone all together. And we worked with them on that day. We ahead of time, we primed the surface and all of that and we mapped out the designs.
[00:05:26] And then we brought in the kids and we worked alongside them on that day so that those two days when we actually did the painting, those were absolutely the most fulfilling. And it was so wonderful to see the kids so excited when they realized that like, wow, there’s. Like my art’s right there and it’s huge.
[00:05:42] Sheryl: Outside of the changes that were required because of the pandemic, what was your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?
[00:05:49] Katie: One of the things that was very weird is that there was a mix up with the permit that we had gotten for the original mural spot. So we had had it all settled out and then somehow there was a mess up permit in these, these other, this other site.
[00:06:04] Like the organization that was in charge of them accidentally, like painted over them with like anti paint paint so that you couldn’t like paint over them. It was like a beautification effort. So like last minute we had to change over to a different location and get a different permit and all of that.
[00:06:17] So that was, that was like, wow. I, like, I was almost there. I’d gotten through all the pandemic stuff and I was like, oh, gotta put one more month. So that was. That was a whole, it was a whole mess for a couple weeks, but that was, it ended up being in such a beautiful location. And the, the beautiful part about the end result was that while they were gonna originally be more spaced out in this new site, they were actually closer together.
[00:06:41] So you can see all of the murals at once as you’re walking by.
[00:06:44] Sheryl: What did you learn about yourself during the project?
[00:06:47] Katie: I’m not inherently patient, but that’s something I can work on. So with, with all the bumps in the road, I was getting very anxious. I was like, how am I gonna, I can’t do this anymore. So I had to learn like life, life is going on all around you and you gotta figure out when things change, how you can change with them.
[00:07:06] So my original project was very different from. from the one that I ended up executing. And so I had to realize that my original vision was not the only vision that would work for my project. And being flexible, being patient when things could not go at my ideal timeline I learned a lot about how I can grow in that ability and I’m still growing.
[00:07:30] But the project helped me realize that I have the ability to be patient. I just have to, it’s gonna calm down sometimes .
[00:07:38] Sheryl: What did you learn about the Gold Award process itself that you didn’t know it might be helpful for Future Gold Award Girl Scouts?
[00:07:45] Katie: I did not originally realize before starting the process how much of a team effort it is.
[00:07:51] You think about it as like you’re the gold award Girl Scout, so it’s, it’s your responsibility. It’s like all about whatever, like you, you’re in charge. And that’s true. You are in charge, but it’s really about. You bringing together community members and gaining different insights from different people in order to make a project that serves the community.
[00:08:14] Cause that’s the ultimate goal. And so I learned that. You alone, like, don’t know. You don’t know how to make a change, like for the community. So bringing in different people, getting different ideas that’s really the point of the Gold Award is the interactions that you have with people along the way.
[00:08:31] Sheryl: What other Girl Scout experiences have you had?
[00:08:33] Katie: I was in Girl Scouts from first grade through 12th grade, so the whole nine yards, I didn’t do, we didn’t have daisies like for kindergarten at my school. So I did miss that one potential year. But yes, I started and, you know, along the way, elementary school we did trips.
[00:08:48] Of course there’s cookie sales. More recently I’ve been doing some stuff with my local council, the Greater Atlantic Council. So one of my favorite experiences was camp c e o, where it’s about 30 girls. And 30 local business women that come together at this camp for a couple days a Girl Scout camp and learn about how to be not just business women, but also just like.
[00:09:12] Professional women in the workplace. And so I was involved with that when it was online. In 2020. I did it in person the next year. And then last year I was on the committee for planning it for the next year of girls. So that was an absolutely amazing experience. I met so many wonderful people.
[00:09:28] I got to know girls scouts from other schools and other parts of the city. . And so that’s been one of my absolute favorite parts of Girl Scouts is that I’m not a super outdoorsy person, . But being at that camp with the girls and ha building these connections with each other and with the businesswoman was pretty incredible.
[00:09:47] Sheryl: I’m very interested because as Girl Scouts get older in middle school and high school, their schedules get busier, especially since you’re on the planning committee. How do you get the word out? How do you encourage them and explain how important it is to set this time aside from their schedule and participate in this?
[00:10:08] Katie: I always told people, like even girls that I knew were, that were younger and still in elementary school, I always made sure to tell everyone that I knew that had anything to do with Girl Scouts or would be interested that it really is not just cookies. So we have the cookie program and that’s lovely.
[00:10:25] I love the cookie program and I love selling cookies every year, but the connections that you make in Girl Scouts are so much greater and so I try to help people. The experiences that you’ll have through Girl Scouts is really unlike anything else that you’ll experience. Especially because Girl Scouts is a national organization.
[00:10:43] You have connections to people for life just by being a Girl Scout, being a Gold award, girl Scout and. . So I, I just always tell people, I’m like, these are the things I’ve done. I tell ’em about the service projects I’ve done for my Silver Ward. I tell them about just the people I’ve met about camp c e o.
[00:10:59] So I just have to make sure that everyone knows there’s so many ways to be a Girl Scout. There’s so many paths you can take as a Girl Scout starting like, you know, even in elementary school. So I always try to make people know, I’m like Girl Scouts. It’s a whole thing. It’s a whole world that you might only know a sliver of right now.
[00:11:17] Sheryl: You are a leader outside of Girl Scouts also and started an organization at your school. Can you tell us about that?
[00:11:25] Katie: At my high school, I started a program a tutoring program between students at my school and students at a school in Tanzania. So it started in the summer of 2020 when through an administrator at my school, I was able to connect to tutor a high school boy in Tanzania.
[00:11:44] And so we met a few times over the summer and I was just helping him practice English. It was also just. the ability to talk with someone from other country. And so we just learned about each other’s cultures and it was wonderful. So the next year I was able to work with the local Rotary, the Buckhead Rotary in Atlanta to make this kind of a wide scale program.
[00:12:04] So not just me and the one other student, but also 10 students from my school, and then 10 students from the other school. And so the program was is. A week Wednesday mornings for our time, and then in the afternoon enhance me in time and we meet virtually for about 45 minutes to talk about.
[00:12:25] Different aspects of each other’s cultures. We help them just practice English cuz just having, they have English instruction, but being able to talk with students their age in English is just a great practice for them. And then for us to be able to not only help them but gain so much from the experience of interacting with them.
[00:12:45] Has been, it’s been amazing. And I have graduated high school since then. So I ran the program for a year and a half, and now there’s another student who’s a current junior at my school who’s taken it over. So I’m so lucky that that’s able to continue and she’s doing a wonderful job keeping this connection strong.
[00:13:02] What are your plans for the. So I am in college right now. I’m at Williams College in Western Massachusetts, and I’m going to be studying political science and then studio art. So in the future I would love to be involved in the, in the United Nations somehow, or in global diplomacy. We’ll see exactly what form that takes, but that’s something I’m definitely interested in hoping to have, you know, be involved in the world.
[00:13:26] And as a world citizen.
[00:13:27] Sheryl: Is there anything else that you’d like to share with the audience?
[00:13:30] Katie: I’ve had such amazing experience with Girl Scouts and I’m just so grateful to everyone along the way, from my troop leaders to my council leadership to national leadership. Thank you so much for everything you do for girls helping us realize how we can be leaders even at a young age.
[00:13:46] So thank you so much and for future girl Scouts and current girl scouts who are thinking about. Pursuing projects, whether that be the Gold Award or other community service initiatives, I would just say keep going for it. You’ll. be able to make such a big change in your community, and you’re also gonna find that you have a lot of change in yourself, which is lovely.
[00:14:06] Sheryl: how do you make your s’mores?
[00:14:08] Katie: I think I’m a classic s’mores girl, so you gotta, you gotta roast it so that it’s a little bit, like, a little bit burnt, but not too much. Can’t get like all the crisp and then, yeah, you gotta do the, the magic thing, which sometimes works where you can a, like you’re able to get the smore, like the marshmallow between the graham crack as you pull it off.
[00:14:30] That’s a skill that I am still mastering. But when you can do that, that’s the way to go.
[00:14:34] Sheryl: Well, thanks for joining us today.
[00:14:36] Katie: Thank you so much for having me. This has been so lovely to talk to you and to be able to share my project with the Girl Scout community.
[00:14:44] Sheryl: Make sure to click follow or subscribe so you always know when new episodes are released.
[00:14:49] Power your passion, and conquer your challenges.
[00:14:55] Walter: The Hearts of Gold Podcast is brought to you by the Grow and Share Network, produced by off the Walter Media product. Thank you for listening and spreading the word on what we do. If you want to share your story of how you earned your goal award, Reach out and send an email to growandshare@outlook.com.
[00:15:13] 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.