Local Girl Scout Completes Girl Scout Gold Award Project
Natalie Urban, a recent Conant High School graduate, grew up a frequent visitor to Schaumburg Park District's Spring Valley Nature Center. Her family would walk to the center several times a week when she was little. "I remember looking to see if anybody was swimming in the creek near the cabin," she recalls. The walk always included a stop at the Heritage Farm to visit the piglets and chickens, but her favorite part was looking for rabbits and deer elsewhere on the trip. As she got older, she participated in the various camps they offered. "We built shelters survivor-style in the woods and listened for coyotes during the overnights," says Natalie. Spring Valley Nature Center was a big part of her growing to love nature and camp, which also played a role in her Girl Scout experience.
The new Bison's Bluff playground caught Natalie's eye as did the increase in traffic at Spring Valley's parking lot. The playground brought many new visitors to the center, but it didn't appear many of them ventured into the prairie, forest or wetland beyond. This observation and a love for drawing and painting led Natalie to choose to do a Girl Scout Gold Award project to highlight the rest of the center. The Girl Scout Gold Award Project requires a minimum of 80 hours of work on a community impact project. This project, in connection with exploring issues in advocacy and working on leadership skills as pre-requisites, combined to result in earning the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouts. Natalie's goal was to create something that would encourage children and their parents to learn more about a place she grew to love.
Natalie has created an activity book aimed at children ages 5-8 and their families. The booklet encourages kids to use their senses to draw what they see, hear and smell when they visit different areas of the nature center. With a parent or older sibling's help, they can also work through a word search, crossword puzzle and maze to learn more about the different plants they may see during their visit. There are also coloring pages that include some of the wildlife they may find. There are also blank pages they can use to document their visit. In creating the book, Natalie researched the various ecosystems within the center and used her drawing and painting skills along with computer publishing skills to create the book. In designing her project, she says "I wanted people to explore the center beyond the new playground, and learn about the nature around them while they did it. I think that the book benefits both the visitors and the nature center. It benefits the patrons by educating them about the local flora and fauna and benefits the nature center by increasing foot traffic throughout. I think overall education about nature is down. People are often not educated about the environments and what current science says about it. The activity book creates a jumping off point to generate interest in the younger generations to learn more about the world around them." Natalie provided the first run of books and crayon sets to the nature center by using funds from cookie sales. She also provided a digital copy so they can print more copies when these have been distributed. "I hope that people will look for the booklets in the nature center building and take advantage of this great neighborhood resource," she concludes.
The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest award in Girl Scouts. Open only to girls in high school, the Girl Scout Gold Award is the most prestigious award in the world for girls-and the most difficult to earn-and it's only available to Girl Scouts. Gold Award Girl Scouts are making the world a better place. These young women are inspiring leaders whose Gold Award projects are impacting the worlds of STEM, education, agriculture, medicine, and more on a local, national, or global level. Natalie has joined an elite group of Gold Award Girl Scouts and plans to use her experience as she pursues a degree from Butler University in Indiana.