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Local Girl Scouts Achieve Highest Award

Arlington Heights Girl Scout Troop 41614 recently earned the Bronze Star Award, the highest award for the Junior level in Girl Scouting. The honor was announced at the bridging ceremony at Olive Mary Stitt School last spring. The girls were further recognized by Mayor Tom Hayes who met with the girls last month to express his appreciation for their citizenship and achievement. Mayor Hayes awarded each of the girls with an Arlington Heights village pin.

Over a two year period the eleven girls worked with their leaders, Becky Donner and Mindy Young to satisfy all of the badge requirements and lead projects to be eligible for the award. In the process, the girls learned computer programming, all about how businesses are run, as well as how to create and edit films in iMovie. They also demonstrated several styles of writing, completed a several month long fitness challenge, and planned their own camping trip.

"The programming for girl scouts is really changing" said Mindy Young, one of the leaders. "The focus is more on skill building. There is movement toward a problem solving approach which challenges the girls to identify a problem and plan a project to fix it." said Young. "For example, for their Bronze Star Project, the girls in Troop 41614 realized there were safety issues at their school. They then used their new script writing and computer skills to make an instructional video that demonstrates safe drop off and pick up procedures for parents and students." said Young. "We wanted to leave something behind to help our school because we were leaving for Middle School this year," said Caroline Stanczak, one of the scouts.

Becky Donner, a Troop Leader said, "We are just so proud of the girls, but more importantly, they are proud of themselves. They know what they can do and it's exciting to be a part of that." Donner and Young are quick to point out that the troop would not have been successful without the help of parents, the administration at Olive Mary Stitt School, and the Arlington Heights Memorial Library.

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