[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 Aftyn with us. Hi Aftyn.
[00:00:16] Aftyn: Hi, thanks so much for having me.
[00:00:17] Sheryl: Thanks for joining us. Can you tell us about your Girl Scout Gold Award project?
[00:00:22] Aftyn: I received my Gold Award in 2007, I believe when I was a junior in high school.
[00:00:30] I grew up in Knoxville, Tennessee, and at the time I was heavily involved in church choir. I went to a Methodist church, and at the time a Had a relationship with a few domestic shelters across Knoxville, and they were in desperate need of toiletries. And so my project was called I believe communities with zest as like zest the bar of soap.
[00:00:57] And I collected donations for toiletries across the city for these shelters.
[00:01:03] Sheryl: What is one of your favorite memories from your project?
[00:01:06] Aftyn: Definitely dropping off the materials to the shelters. I think growing up, I was heavily involved in community service efforts. And I think a lot of the times those are often organized by outside entities, such as my high school.
[00:01:20] Or various community groups I was involved with, but this was the first time that I was having to take initiative and showing up at the shelters and dropping off the toiletries and meeting some of the women that were clients there. I think really was a transformative experience at the time.
[00:01:39] Sheryl: What was a challenge that you faced during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:01:43] Aftyn: I didn’t know what marketing was at the time and now that I’m a community organizer for my career I realized that a lot of community organizing is recruitment and marketing and promotion as to what you’re trying to do.
[00:01:56] And I think that originally I had published a bunch of flyers and I’d put those up in various places. And I believe what happened is the initial run where I tried to collect a certain amount of toiletries was a failure. And I believe I, I repurposed maybe the flyer and I went out to a few community groups and spoke and I think also pitched my church choir to chip in as well.
[00:02:19] Sheryl: While we still use flyers today, when you did your project, social media wasn’t what it is today. How do you think that social media may have changed your project?
[00:02:30] Aftyn: I would have had a full campaign. I would have metrics because for my day job, I do a lot of digital organizing. And so I would have had a virtual signup link.
[00:02:40] I would have then had a ladder of engagement for people who dropped off toiletries to get involved with these shelters and or my project. So I think it would have been much more visible presence, but then also using technology to pull people in and provide them the necessary opportunities to move forward in their community service.
[00:02:59] Sheryl: And with what you just shared, that would have also been able to help build the sustainability aspect that is a part of Goldward projects, because if you pull people in in those ways, then they may, they’ll be able to stay and support the project. Even into the future after your Gold Award project is done.
[00:03:16] Aftyn: Now that I’m talking to you, I probably need to go look at your website and look at some of the projects from recent years because in my mind, the Gold Award projects were very finite. It was a certain amount of time and so it would be interesting to see how, how they’re now being integrated in a sustainable fashion.
[00:03:32] Sheryl: Yeah, you would be amazed at some of the things these young women do nowadays. And when we talked, you had mentioned that you had a important team member and you probably had others on your team when you were working on your gold award.
[00:03:45] Who supported you when you were working on your gold award project?
[00:03:48] Aftyn: My church, I was a member of at the time. And then my mother, who was my Girl Scout troop leader for 18 years was my biggest fan and a lot of other girls in my troop their biggest fan as well.
[00:04:00] Sheryl: How do you think that having done the gold award while you were in high school has continued to influence and impact what you have done since you’ve graduated?
[00:04:12] A
[00:04:12] Aftyn: lot of what I learned in Girl Scouts in terms of technical skills, resilience. I used to go to Camp Tenassi, which was our Girl Scout camp once a year and sleep on bunks rough it outside. To be honest, a lot of, you know, feminism, which was back then, you know, Women can be anything they want to be.
[00:04:31] You can be president and a politician, which is the route that I pursued. But I do see, I think I wake up every morning and, and a mantra that I always use as a Girl Scout is always prepared. And so I catch myself saying that all the time. And also a few of the other old adages that I learned as well.
[00:04:47] But as at the moment, I’m a state representative in Tennessee and I believe that Girl Scouts enabled me to build the foundational skills I needed to eventually be a legislator.
[00:05:00] Sheryl: As a legislature, you have a even larger voice. And over the years, you have been a voice for other people.
[00:05:10] Can you tell us what some of those projects are that you feel have really impacted your community and how you’ve worked within those projects?
[00:05:20] Aftyn: So I’m a social worker. I received my master’s degree in community administration and practice social work, which for your listeners, there are two routes in social work. You can either take the clinical route, which you become a therapist, or you take the policy route and you do what I do or advocacy or community organizing.
[00:05:37] Moving back to Tennessee in 2016 I have a lot of my, what you would call projects, I call campaigns. And a lot of those campaigns have been to restore democracy to ensure voting rights and access for everyone. And right now as a legislator, my seminal piece of legislation is to eliminate.
[00:05:55] The grocery tax, which Tennessee is one of 13 states that has a grocery tax. So I’m working to improve the material benefits of a lot of working class Tennesseans especially those on fixed incomes.
[00:06:07] Sheryl: What influenced you to go that community route at when you chose social work as your future?
[00:06:14] Aftyn: My Girl Scout troop growing up was very diverse.
[00:06:18] I was zoned for not the best public schools, and so I ended up going to private school, a Tony private school. Yet a lot of girls in my troop lived in trailer parks. So there was a disparate socioeconomic status across my Girl Scout troop, which taught me a lot about who has access to the American dream and who doesn’t.
[00:06:41] and what barriers, what systemic barriers and challenges there are to accessing the opportunities that I had. I think that experience was foundationally important for what I’m doing now.
[00:06:52] Sheryl: When we think of our young women in high school that are considering Gold award projects, I always encourage anybody that I talk to to make sure that whatever you work on is a passion.
[00:07:05] You don’t want to do something that just because someone says this would be a good project is something to do. However, can you maybe share some bite sized pieces that some of those young women may be able to consider as opportunities to influence their community to recognize and make change?
[00:07:26] Aftyn: If you read the news, or you’re in your, you know, you’re in your school setting, for example, and you hear something that really bothers you, you can absolutely impact that with your project.
[00:07:37] And so it may be small and bite sized, but I think any type of project or any steps towards that reconciling or ameliorating the conditions in which you find yourself or the situation, that there’s a project for you that you can find that would do that. So I think. A lot of a lot of young people.
[00:07:57] I’m always impressed by young people today at how involved and engaged and informed they are a lot more than I was at that age. And so I think there’s a lot of avenues. I would also tell folks to seek out groups in your community that are already working on this because oftentimes there are opportunities either through internships.
[00:08:18] Or to network on the issue, you know, with people who are working on the issues that you care about.
[00:08:24] Sheryl: What other experiences did you have in Girl Scouts that have influenced you as you’ve continued through life?
[00:08:31] Aftyn: My mother, who was my Girl Scout troop leader. She believed in the importance of travel and culture.
[00:08:40] And so as a troop, we traveled to Washington DC, New York, Savannah for the pilgrimage. And I, what I find very inspiring is some of the girls in my troop who did not have the opportunities that I had ended up pursuing travel later in life because of my mom. I’m getting emotional talking about it, but I would say that I think the troop that I was in as well as my mom provided an environment for a lot of girls to experience the world and to go out and to learn from other cultures and, and to, to see that there are ways to improve your community and to bring that back home.
[00:09:23] Sheryl: That’s so heartfelt. And I think your mom and I are probably kindred, kindred spirits. I am in rural Wisconsin and grew up outside of Chicago. So very different environment, but we moved to rural Wisconsin. And as I worked with my daughter’s troop, I was, it’s a different environment. And there were so many Girl Scouts in my daughter’s troop that never even left.
[00:09:52] town of 1500 people. And, you know, I had the opportunity to take them, for example, to Girl Scout convention in Indianapolis and, you know, other, you know, travel opportunities. And I completely agree. It, it helps form them and shape them in a way that they wouldn’t have had. without Girl Scouts and is, is a reason why I am so passionate about Girl Scouts.
[00:10:18] It’s, it’s offering, it’s opening doors for, for Girl Scouts. Are you still involved in Girl Scouts in any way now?
[00:10:26] Aftyn: I’ve always been a busy bee. And I haven’t had the time, I think. Once I’m probably done with politics, which maybe never I would absolutely love to have a troop, but I just, I don’t have the capacity to, to take that on right now in a way that I would want to give to, to those girls, so.
[00:10:43] Sheryl: That doesn’t mean when they come to the Capitol that they can’t come see you and be impressed though.
[00:10:48] Aftyn: That’s true. Maybe, maybe, now that I’m talking to you, maybe I should organize, I should probably reach out to the local council and see if they have a day on the hill or something that I can help with.
[00:10:57] Sheryl: I know we do that in Wisconsin and it’s, it’s really impressive and I know the Girl Scouts are always excited and it opens their eyes again in a different way than. They may have had before.
[00:11:10] Aftyn: As a legislator, I’m hosting something called Girls Club once a month where teens come in and they tour my office and go see the legislature.
[00:11:18] So it’s not Girl Scout related, but definitely bringing youth programming into my scope of work.
[00:11:25] Sheryl: What else would you like to share with the audience?
[00:11:27] Aftyn: I just wanna acknowledge my, my mom again, I think she’s. changed a lot of people’s lives. And I think she’s changed a lot of people’s lives. And I think that a lot of girls, even though a lot of women in our, well, now women in our troop you know, ended up choosing to be moms and choosing to raise kids that I think that you know, their experience was so formative and that my mom continues to.
[00:11:53] change their lives and their kids lives and their children’s lives. And I think that I, I deeply care about politics because of. those foundational experiences that I had with my troop and the diversity and adversity, the adversity that we faced. I, I deeply believe in the Girl Scout project. So however I can be helpful you know, with this project and, and moving forward, please let me know.
[00:12:16] Sheryl: You are in a role and have chosen to be in a role that impacts so many people and that from what I’ve observed, you are in that role to make those changes. And I, I just want to appreciate you. for that because the work you’re doing is so important and I really appreciate seeing someone who really has that passion to make the difference in an important role like you are in, so thank you.
[00:12:51] Now after all of that, we have our silly question.
[00:12:54] Aftyn: Okay!
[00:12:54] Sheryl: So how do you make your s’mores?
[00:12:56] Aftyn: Oh my gosh, I like my marshmallows very crispy and often like falling off You know, whatever stick they’re on and then I’m a glutton, so two pieces of chocolate and then, you know, just as stacked as possible. So, and now that unfortunately I have a gluten sensitivity, gluten free graham crackers, so it’s a more chef experience now, I guess by, but back in the day I used to inhale s’mores like it was my job.
[00:13:24] Sheryl: I’ll give you a little tip. Girl Scouts has a gluten free cookie.
[00:13:29] Aftyn: Oh, okay.
[00:13:30] Sheryl: And it’s a caramel chocolate chip. And so that would go really, really good with that marshmallow. And you could still put the other chocolate in there because of course, there’s never enough chocolate. Well, thank you so much for joining me today.
[00:13:46] I really appreciate it.
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[00:13:57] 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.
[00:14:08] 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.