[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 Savannah with us. Hi Savannah.
[00:00:19] Savannah: Hi.
[00:00:20] Sheryl: Can you tell us about your girl scout gold award project?
[00:00:23] Savannah: My project was entitled. Open your heart, open a book, and it focused on assisting children who go through childhood trauma. My main goal was to assist children who are going through the unimaginable and to give them an outlet in which they can escape their reality for a few hours and explore the world of a character.
[00:00:41] So books are a really powerful tool and they have the ability to help someone out of a hard time, as there are ways to disconnect. And it’s been found that childhood trauma can impact learning in schools and that a child can become more easily distracted and less likely to understand the information that’s being presented to them.
[00:00:58] And it has also been found that reading as well as speaking with an adult can actually help children. Who have gone through a traumatic situation, actually begin to understand their own feelings and start to learn how to express their emotions in more of a mature manner. And I address this by creating a book knook.
[00:01:17] And I did this in a local shelter that helps women and children who are escaping domestic violence. The book knook was placed in the intake center. So children can snuggle up with a bean bag, a book, and a blanket while their mother fills out paperwork. And I also created a website that encourages reading and I receive real feedback of books that should be added to the website as well.
[00:01:40] Sheryl: What inspired your project?
[00:01:42] Savannah: I love reading. This was a love that came later in my life. As a child, I used to always feel forced to read, but I want to give children an outlet in which they can read for their own enjoyment, especially children who have gone through something that. Is absolutely unimaginable books are very therapeutic and again, they have the ability to transport the reader to a far away land and escape.
[00:02:08] What is, you know, a very dark time for some kids. And, you know, it’s really important to understand how vital our youth is and having a highly educated youth is important, especially for children who grow up in single parent homes, because they are more likely to drop out of school early. We need to protect our youth and we need to ensure that they are given access to resources that will encourage them to stay in school and developing a love of reading is just one resource that will foster a love of learning.
[00:02:37] Sheryl: How did you connect with the shelter?
[00:02:39] Savannah: I actually got in contact with them by looking up. Shelters in my area. I reached out to a V D a, which is aids victims of domestic violence. And I got connected with a woman named ginger pool who was my direct resource or my direct link to the center.
[00:02:57] Sheryl: How did you collect the books for the nook?
[00:03:00] Savannah: So that was done through my high school’s national honor society. I got in contact with the teacher that ran it and we were able to set a time and place over a span a few days or. Students to come in and bring in their books. And this was actually happening, you know, during 2021. So not many people were still in school then.
[00:03:25] So it was really amazing to see that we received over 400 book donations or blankets, stuffed animals. And most of that was from kids who drove there after school. Just to donate to this project, which is really amazing.
[00:03:42] Sheryl: What most surprised you about your personal growth during the project?
[00:03:46] Savannah: My willingness to persevere and persist.
[00:03:48] This is definitely not an easy project for anybody to accomplish, but being dedicated to it and wanting to see it through is something that. I found really important. And I really had to work on in myself. I’m the kind of person who, once I get really excited about something, I just wanted to get done right at that second.
[00:04:07] But this is a big project you have to spend at least 80 hours of time just dedicated to it. So just learning to stay. Encouraged learning to stay passionate about. It was really important to me.
[00:04:22] Sheryl: And your troop leader, Ms. Phelps was critical in keeping you on that path to continuing gold. How did she support you?
[00:04:30] Savannah: Ms. Phelps, Christina, she has been my troop leader involved in my troop since I was five. and I’m now 19 years old. So I have known her for basically my entire life. She was always someone who pushed me to get my bronze award, my silver award. And when it came time to get my gold award we had only had about four girls left in our little troop and we started out with a big troop of daisies.
[00:04:55] So she was always there. She was always call me if you need me, text me if you need me and that encouragement again, because perseverance is such an important aspect of this project. She was someone who definitely helped me want to pursue it.
[00:05:11] Sheryl: Who else was on your team?
[00:05:13] Savannah: Alongside Christina there was also my mom who helped me shove a big bookcase in the back of my car and drive it all the way home.
[00:05:22] I had a friend Mattie Luco help paint the beautiful rainbow on the side of my bookcase with me. My boyfriend, Ethan Mo he helped. Sort through all of those books with me to make sure each and every one of them was in good condition for the kids.
[00:05:37] And he also helped me build my website. Again, national honor society and ginger pool, who is my contact at AVDA.
[00:05:45] Sheryl: What was your biggest challenge during your project and how did you overcome it?
[00:05:49] Savannah: Figuring out what I wanted to do. The freedom that you’re given on the gold award project is both a blessing and a curse
[00:05:57] Cause while you’re able to use your imagination to come up with any focus that you desire, it can be really hard to nail down exactly what you wanna do. I had many different ideas that I started out with, but. I am thankful that I ended up with the project that I did.
[00:06:13] Sheryl: What surprised you about the gold award process as you were going through it that you didn’t know that might be helpful for someone else to know before they start?
[00:06:21] Savannah: If you don’t feel like you’re being recognized for your project, hold off.
[00:06:26] Just sit with yourself for a little bit, be proud of the work that you’ve done. I would say that the recognition that I have gotten after my project and after I got my gold award has been very shocking to me. I had an article written about me for my local paper and I was featured on the girl scout Facebook page.
[00:06:46] And now I’m here and. While I have this platform, I do wanna take a moment to recognize AVDA or aid to victims of domestic violence, which is the organization that I worked with. And if anybody listening has the means to, or the desire to, if you visit their website at AVDA online.org, you can make a donation because the work that they’re doing is truly amazing.
[00:07:10] And it’s all going to help the women and children that are escaping domestic violence.
[00:07:15] Sheryl: And we’ll make sure to link to their website in the show notes.
[00:07:18] Reflecting back on your troop experience, as you said, you were with the same troop throughout your experience, even if it had fewer girls, as you went through, what was that full experience like and what helped you to stay with it all the way through?
[00:07:34] Savannah: I mean, I loved being a girl scout. I’m so thankful that I was able to grow up as a girl scout. I loved going camping with my friends. We have so many memories that we still look back at and laugh on now of times when we were up until 3:00 AM camping and the moms are telling us to be quiet, but we’re all just laughing, giggling, cause we’re so excited just to be together.
[00:07:55] I remember I was probably in middle school and we had an older girl scout who was in high school, come in. And I remember her talking to us about tell, like, telling us to continue. And I remember that really stuck with me. She told us, you know, sometimes it’s gonna be hard to sell cookies in high school.
[00:08:15] And sometimes people are gonna say things about you, but what I did. I took what she said. And I really let that sink in with me, even when I was like, do I really wanna be doing this going into high school and middle school, but I completely owned it. And that is what I would say to every girl scout just own it, no matter how young you are, how old you are, you’re a girl scout and you should be proud of that and every year when cookie season came around every I was the coolest person, that’s all I’ll say.
[00:08:49] Sheryl: What was your silver and bronze experiences like?
[00:08:53] Savannah: Going all the way back to my like elementary school I actually have a proposal that would put crosswalks in the neighborhood that was surrounding my elementary school, because there were no crosswalks.
[00:09:05] And a lot of us walked to school every day and it was a busy road. They were this drop off and pick up. So that was my bronze project. And my silver award project with my girl scout troop we created a PowerPoint and a presentation for elementary going into middle school. So fifth graders on what to expect, going into middle school, studying tips and that sort of thing.
[00:09:30] Sheryl: What other girl scout memories would you like to share?
[00:09:33] Savannah: Probably one of the magical girl scout experiences I ever had was one year we went to SeaWorld and they had closed the park just for girl Scouts. And I got to sleep in front of the turtle aquarium. I, that was a really, really cool thing to wake up to.
[00:09:53] You feel like you’re in ocean and you’re just staring at a bunch of sea turtles somewhere around. And that was really awesome.
[00:09:59] Sheryl: What is in your future right now?
[00:10:01] Savannah: I am a sophomore at the university of central Florida. I’m studying political science and national intelligence and security and in my future, I’m not exactly sure what I wanna do.
[00:10:12] I do know that I want to live in DC and continue working alongside the government in some capacity, but I am taking the girl scout law with me to make the world a better place and serve country while I do that.
[00:10:26] Sheryl: Is there anything else you’d like to share with the audience?
[00:10:28] Savannah: Be yourself. And if you’re doing a gold award project or you’re even thinking about it, or you just wanna stick with girl Scouts, but you’re unsure, be true to who you are.
[00:10:38] Know your passion, know that your voice matters and whatever you do do not give up, because if you have dreams they’re out there, they’re achievable. You just have to put towards the work to get them done.
[00:10:51] Sheryl: How do you make your s’mores?
[00:10:52] Savannah: I use dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. And I also believe that if you don’t have at least a little bit of char on your marshmallow, then you’re not doing it right.
[00:11:02] Cause there is no way that it is fluffy enough on the inside.
[00:11:06] Sheryl: Well thanks for joining us today.
[00:11:08] Savannah: Thank you so much for having me.
[00:11:10] Sheryl: Make sure to click, follow or subscribe. So you always know when new episodes are released and don’t forget to power your passion and conquer your challenges.
[00:11:23] Walter: The hearts of gold podcast is brought to you by the grow and share network produced by off the Walter media productions.
[00:11:30] 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.
[00:11:41] 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.