[00:00:00] Walter: [00:00:00] The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and shared network produced by off the Walter media productions.
[00:00:13] Sheryl: [00:00:13] Welcome to hearts of gold today. We have Megan with us. Hi Megan.
[00:00:18] Megan: [00:00:18] Hi!
[00:00:19] Sheryl: [00:00:19] Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:22] Megan: [00:00:22] So my gold award project was called motherhood matters and it was basically split into two parts. The first being focused on educating my community about money, mental health, and postpartum anxiety and depression, and the second consisting of a diaper drive with my local food bank.
[00:00:39] Postpartum depression is an important consideration with longterm impact one in five women report experiencing postpartum anxiety, depression, yet people don’t commonly talk about it. And in doing my research, something I found is that financial stress and difficulty and providing necessities like diapers for your family can heavily impact [00:01:00] maternal mental health.
[00:01:00] The national diaper bank network reports that one in three families report experiencing diaper need. And, diapers can cost up to $960 per year, which is a lot for many families. We don’t always realize that our neighbors might be struggling with this and diapers are something that we often take for granted.
[00:01:18]So one Avenue of getting diapers is through, a food bank, which is the case in my community. So my local food bank serves 1400 people per month on average, including families with young children and infants and toddlers. And these families often find that they have been ongoing need for diapers.
[00:01:36] So through my project, I educated my community about the link between postpartum anxiety and depression and financial stress, as well as increased awareness that mental health resources are available to prepare for the education aspect. I researched maternal mental health. And, I also arranged partnerships with three centers in my community, consisting of one birthing center and two childcare [00:02:00] centers.
[00:02:01] So at these centers, I educated the family’s there, through, educational infographics, as well as created diaper drives, where families there could donate. diapers that their children had outgrown my project aims to let mothers know that they’re not alone and that it’s okay to ask for help, whether it be getting diapers from the food bank or finding mental health resources.
[00:02:22] Sheryl: [00:02:22] What are some of the mental health resources that you found and shared?
[00:02:25] Megan: [00:02:25] So what I did is I compiled the resources into a QR code list. And so one example is I’m on the Huggies website. They have mental health resources there. So I direct the families to those websites using the QR codes.
[00:02:39] Sheryl: [00:02:39] What did you find was the most interesting part of your project?
[00:02:43] Megan: [00:02:43] People haven’t shared their mental health experiences because mental health can be a touchy topic.
[00:02:48]And a lot of people are struggling. Like I found that, the one in five women report experiencing postpartum anxiety and oppression. And so something that I found is that a lot of people don’t feel like it’s okay [00:03:00] to talk about their experiences.
[00:03:01] Sheryl: [00:03:01] How do we get people to talk about their experiences?
[00:03:04] Megan: [00:03:04] What’s important is building a relationship with them. you know, when you talk to someone, obviously it’s not something that they’re gonna, they’re gonna immediately share because it’s hard for a lot of people that talk about their experiences. So, what I think is most important first is building relationships.
[00:03:20] So then you get to the point where you’re comfortable sharing that mental health experience.
[00:03:24] Sheryl: [00:03:24] What was your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:03:28] Megan: [00:03:28] The birthing center that I previously mentioned, where I held the diaper drive and there was a sudden change in ownership. and the first owner was really supportive and responsive and knowledgeable about maternal mental health.
[00:03:40] In general. I wasn’t really notified about this change. I, that was a little in my, in my project, but I’m glad that I was able to email them and clear that up. but I found that the second owners of the birthing center weren’t as responsive because they had multiple people Manning their email, but I’m glad that I was able to work through that speed bump.
[00:03:59] Sheryl: [00:03:59] Do you have a [00:04:00] special memory from your project you’d like to share?
[00:04:02] Megan: [00:04:02] At the very beginning of my project. Right as I was getting started, I volunteered at the food bank that I donated the diapers to. I helped guide the families to these, through the food bank, picking out their groceries for the month. And, I often notice that one, that the young moms would request diapers, but the diapers were in lung supply most of the time.
[00:04:22] So, one specific instance is I was talking with one of the moms who mentioned how stressed she was. Having to provide diapers for her family because they’re often a financial burden and she was talking about, how the childcare was extremely costly and they would, require families to provide diapers for their child.
[00:04:43] So that was really the spark for my project. Talking with that mom made me wonder how financial difficulty can affect maternal mental health.
[00:04:51] Sheryl: [00:04:51] What do you know about the gold award process now that you wish you knew when you started your project?
[00:04:55] Megan: [00:04:55] Education. So the education part of my project is something that I really tried to [00:05:00] stress educating my community about maternal mental health.
[00:05:03] In that way, the education part was the top priority and then the diapers, because, I think that that’s what the gold award is all about. educating your community.
[00:05:12] Sheryl: [00:05:12] You package the diapers in a special way. Can you share that?
[00:05:15] Megan: [00:05:15] They gathered the diapers from the three locations and my community. And, so what I had to do was soar all the diapers, into packs of 20 by size.
[00:05:26] So I did size one through six. The way that my diaper dry worked is that families could, donate. Stair diapers and they didn’t have to be packaged, which reduces diaper waste. so what I did was, as I said, I packaged the diapers into packs of 20, and then I wrapped them in butcher paper essentially, and then hand stamped it, with the help of some young girl Scouts.
[00:05:47] So that was part of my team, aspect of the project. And then, on top of the packs, I put a link to an educational video. a QR code. So the educational video that I made. So, families that were [00:06:00] given diapers from the food bank could access the video.
[00:06:02] Sheryl: [00:06:02] What other girl scout experiences do you have to share?
[00:06:05] Megan: [00:06:05] One of my favorite memories as a girl scout is every year I’m on veteran’s day, my troop would attend a veterans day parade and we’d help hand out some pamphlets to veterans who would attend the parade.
[00:06:17] And we even got to lead the pledge of allegiance. And so that, that has, I associate really fond memories with that. especially cause it was a yearly thing and we were able to do it last year, but I’m not sure if we’ll be able to do it this year.
[00:06:30] Sheryl: [00:06:30] Is there anything else you’d like to share with the audience?
[00:06:32] Megan: [00:06:32] Try and start your gold award. earlier in high school. Because that’s when you can really invest your time and not have to worry as much about like the workload of school. And that’s what, that’s how you can really invest yourself in your project and focus on the details. So I think that’s really important.
[00:06:48] Sheryl: [00:06:48] How do you make your smore’s?
[00:06:50] Megan: [00:06:50] I’m going to be honest and tell you that I don’t really like chocolate in my smores. I don’t like chocolate in general. So I only go for Graham Cracker and marshmallow.
[00:06:58] Sheryl: [00:06:58] Well, thanks for joining us [00:07:00] today.
[00:07:00] Megan: [00:07:00] Thank you so much.
[00:07:01] Sheryl: [00:07:01] Be sure to click subscribe. So you always know when new episodes are released. And don’t forget to, power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:07:12] Walter: [00:07:12] The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media productions. Thank you for listening and spreading the word on what we do. If you want to share your story of how you earned your gold award, reach out and send an email to growandshare@outlook.com.
[00:07:29] Be sure to listen to the newest episodes on your favorite podcast app, as well as view the full video episodes on youtube.com/Sheryl M. Robinson that’s youtube.com/sheryl, the letter M, Robinson. Take care, and we’ll see you next time.
