[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.
[00:00:11] Sheryl: Welcome to Hearts of Gold. Today we have Sim with us. Hi Sim.
[00:00:16] Sim: Hi.
[00:00:16] Sheryl: Can you tell us about your Girl Scout Gold Award project, please?
[00:00:20] Sim: I would love to. So my Girl Scout Gold Award project is called Honoring the Missing Man.
[00:00:25] Where I have been with veterans for my entire high school life, cuz I’m part of the Air Force Junior, R O T C. At my school where I’m a second lieutenant, I’ve had so many staff positions, I’ve met so many amazing people. But something that’s really stuck out with me through my three, almost four years in that program is all of the amazing veterans I’ve met and they’re just complete dedication and perseverance and they’re just so wholesome and honest.
[00:00:52] And. I wanted to find a way I could honor them through my Girl Scout Gold Award and through R O T C. So I did some research and I found out that there was something called a missing man table, which is a table that is set up through recognized P O W Mia a, which are prisoner award and missing an action soldiers.
[00:01:14] So I had asked around and all of my fellow cadets, not a lot of people had heard about it. But all of the veterans knew about it, and that made me kind of sad that cadets in the ROTC program didn’t even know that this thing existed. So I set out to make sure everyone knew. So I put a bunch of kids together.
[00:01:37] I had the ROTC kids cadets, they all helped put the kits. Together. We donated kids to over 15 schools. In leaner I s D. It was, it was amazing. I presented to the tool board. I didn’t need kit to the tool board. Kids went to elementary schools where they got lesson plans too, so they could like know what was on the table.
[00:01:58] So a missing man table. It just a simple round table and it has multiple different things on it. They all represent something, so I wanted to just make sure people knew. POWMIA might be gone, but they’re not forgotten is they’re saying.
[00:02:16] Sheryl: I love the connection between finding out something and related to veterans where you’re really engaged and learning that other people weren’t as aware of it either.
[00:02:27] And that triggered your project. What kind of feedback did you get about your project?
[00:02:33] Sim: So my instructors, I have two instructors through junior R O T C. And they were so supportive and so helpful along the way that helped me connect with people to get these kids donated to. I connected with the school board.
[00:02:48] Overall, the feedback was very positive. I, the principals and the vice principals, but the schools that I gave kids to, they’re also grateful and thankful that I was doing this not only for the school but for the kids and the students as well. So that was, that was really special.
[00:03:03] Sheryl: What challenges did you have during your project, and how did you overcome them?
[00:03:08] Sim: So one of the overall biggest challenges in my project was honestly just getting started because our ROTC program is about 80 cadets, which sounds like a lot, but it’s not. And I only know about like personally about 20 to 40 of them. So, I wanted to get the whole core involved. I wanted to get everyone involved.
[00:03:31] So I would say the hardest part was just getting everyone together to make these kits and to raise that awareness. And then reaching out to the schools was also kind of hard because I had to reach out to each school. Cause I didn’t want to just show up to a school and give them a box. So I had to reach out to them and sometimes it took a long time to respond, but in the end I, we definitely achieved our goal and I’m, I’m very happy with the way the project turned out.
[00:03:59] Sheryl: What was one of the things that you implemented in order to get those 80 cadets all together?
[00:04:05] Sim: So I had created signup sheets, signup geniuses to get cadets to help assemble the kits. I didn’t end up getting all 80 cadets together, cuz that would be, Far too many, but I got about 15, which was my end goal.
[00:04:21] And these were all newer cadets as well because I wanted people who were new to the program to know that we did something that was impacting the community and they got service hours. Cause you need service hours for ROTC as well. So it was just, it was really good to see people come together over something.
[00:04:38] Sheryl: Your project impacted a lot of people, people in the schools, people in your community, people in R O T C, the veterans that were aware that you were working on this. What kind of feedback did you get?
[00:04:51] Sim: Everyone was really grateful. Some people were kind of confused because I didn’t know what a missing man table was, but I honestly, I explained it.
[00:05:02] I persevered. I kept going. It was, it was just a really special moment to hear from all of the people that had helped me, like come up with the idea and helped me along the way to see the final end result. And they were all grateful and they’re all proud of me, which, which formed my heart definitely.
[00:05:20] Sheryl: Do you have a special memory from your project?
[00:05:22] Sim: I donated a kit to the Cedar Park Public Library, which was, I’m pretty sure that was one of the very first kits I had ever donated. And while I was setting up the kit, it was right when voting was happening. So there were tons of people walking in and out of that library.
[00:05:38] And I had so many people just come up to me and ask me like, what are you doing? What’s going on? And one person was a veteran and he just stood there and kind of just stared. And I was like, are you okay? And he was like, I love that you’re doing this. Like it means a lot. So that really, that really stuck out to me because.
[00:05:58] Even if I just impacted him, that still meant a lot to me.
[00:06:00] Sheryl: What did you learn about the Girl Scout Gold Award process that you didn’t know it might be helpful for Future Gold Award?
[00:06:07] Sim: It is going to take a long time, but it’s definitely gonna be worth it. It’s, it’s, it takes a lot. You need all of those hours.
[00:06:15] You communicate people together, you need to learn how to plan things, which was a big problem of mine. I would just kind of be like, okay, we’re gonna do this, but I’m, I just learned to slow down and plan things, and that’s something that I think is really important to learn how to do, especially in life.
[00:06:30] Well, but, I say the goal process, it’s definitely a long process, but it’s definitely very, very rewarding.
[00:06:38] Sheryl: A component of your project, which is how I found you, was your Instagram page. Can you tell us about that?
[00:06:44] Sim: I had created the Instagram page because I am a very marketing based person. I’m very, I’m a very social person.
[00:06:54] I’m a people person. I love communicating with people. I had managed the social media for my rotc. Program actually. So I knew the basics on how to run a social media. I have run multiple for other clubs as well, so I, I knew that this was a way to reach a lot of people in a short amount of time, and so it was really easy to do, honestly.
[00:07:18] I just had to take pictures and then upload them and then tag a whole lot of hashtags. But yeah, it was, it was definitely a good way to get my project out there, so I would definitely recommend utilizing social media and all of those resources. For anyone that’s trying to get their gold, it’s definitely very, very helpful.
[00:07:36] Sheryl: How do you find the hashtags that you use on Instagram?
[00:07:40] Sim: You can just put in a hashtag and then start typing, and the most popular ones will pop up. So I kind of just go down that list of what’s related to my Gold Award project. So I do hashtag Gold Award, hashtag Growth Scout Gold award. I just kind of list all of them because the more hashtag you can list, the more people you can reach, and that’s really what’s the most important there is making sure your outreach is maximize.
[00:08:06] Sheryl: What other Girl Scout activities are you involved in?
[00:08:09] Sim: I have been a Girl Scout since kindergarten. It’s been, it’s been amazing. It’s, it’s a very big part of my life. I. I love it so much. I have been selling cookies since kindergarten. I am a Girl Scout national delegate, which means I’ll be going to national convention in Florida over the summer.
[00:08:27] I’m very excited about that. Yes, I’m very excited. I was also on the girl advisory board. I am part of, not one, but two Girl Scout troops. One is my home troop, and then my second troop is the. Only Girl Scout troop in the United States just for Cuba diving. So I have a whole T troop just dedicated to going diving, and that’s, that’s amazing to me that I love diving and that they happened to be based in Austin as well.
[00:08:55] How did you find that troop? I had just gone diving once in The Bahamas when we were on vacation. I was like, this looks like fun. I like the water, I like being underwater, and I just fell in love with it. And so I was trying to find ways like to dive in Austin, which is where I live, so like anywhere nearby mean really.
[00:09:16] I was trying to find it, but it was just so hard because I’m under 18, so it’s very, very hard for me to just be like, okay, I’ll go live right now without an adult. And my parents were not fans of diving. So I started just looking up all the things that I did. I was like scuba diving, R o T P, nothing popped up.
[00:09:36] And I was like, scuba diving, girl scouts. And then they popped up and I was like, oh my gosh, they’re based in Austin too. And it’s been, it’s been an amazing experience. I’ve met a lot of people that are really amazing.
[00:09:47] Sheryl: So how does that troupe function and what kinds of activities do you do?
[00:09:52] Sim: So that is my secondary troup.
[00:09:54] So I sell cookie through my main troupe. And do all of the things, my main rou as well as my scuba troupe, but my scuba troupe, we really just go diving and it’s amazing. We do a lot of service. We pick up a lot of trash, we find a lot of really interesting things underwater. And it’s definitely a lot of fun.
[00:10:13] But we have a lot of, so we have an underwater cookie booth that we do so people can come in and get cookies and we look them up to them from. 12 feet underwater.
[00:10:25] Sheryl: Well, there’s an unusual marketing tactic. So what do you have planned for your future?
[00:10:30] Sim: Like I said, I’m a very people person. I love being hands-on, so I’m thinking something either two very different fields.
[00:10:38] Very, very, very different directions, but either medicine or business. Very different schools, very different. Everything but. I have been in osa, which is a future health professionals club since freshman year of high school. I’ve been around doctors. My mom’s a doctor. I have a whole family full of doctors.
[00:10:59] So I’ve been around the medicine side for quite a while, and I just love helping people and being hands on. But then the other part of me really likes marketing and business analytic type stuff, so still trying to decide which one I wanna do.
[00:11:16] Sheryl: And you have some time.
[00:11:17] Sim: Yeah.
[00:11:18] Sheryl: What else would you like to share with the audience?
[00:11:20] Sim: If you’re a goal scout and you’re thinking about trying to go for your gold, do it. You don’t, you don’t lose anything from not trying and you gained so much. If you get that gold, it, it really, it means a lot. I know a lot of people are gonna tell you, oh, go do it. It means so much. But it, it really does. It impacts your life.
[00:11:40] Cause you see. Firsthand that you are the one changing people’s lives and you are making a definite impact, and that’s really, that’s really moving for everyone involved.
[00:11:52] Sheryl: How do you make your s’mores?
[00:11:53] Sim: I’m very in between. I will either. Okay. I have fun fact, I hate marshmallows. Cannot stand them unless they’re in my small, so I either like burn them to a crisp because I’m too lazy to do like the perfect browning technique.
[00:12:11] Or I just sit there and spend 30 minutes trying to get it that golden brown and then it catches on fire anyways. So most of the time they’re just burnt. But you know, I’ll take it anyway. As long as it’s got chocolate graham cracker and marshmallow. I’m calling it Amore.
[00:12:26] Sheryl: Mm-hmm. Absolutely. Well, thanks for joining us today.
[00:12:30] Sim: Thank you for having me.
[00:12:32] Sheryl: Make sure to click follow or subscribe so you always know when new episodes are released. Power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:12:42] 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.
[00:12:53] 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.
[00:13:04] Thanks again for listening and we’ll see you next time.