Gold Award Gives Girl Scouts opportunity to help the community

Junior Giulia Corno has been amassing a collection of used iPods. Not because she’s an Apple fanatic, but rather to donate them to a shelter for at-risk teens. She, like many other Girl Scouts, has been working on their Gold Award, a highly involved and intensive volunteering project, over the last few months.

The Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouts, is designed to benefit the community and involves at least 80 hours of service. It’s the third in a group of community service projects Girl Scouts choose to complete, following the Bronze and Silver Award projects.

The project also needs to have a lasting effect in the community. This can be one of the hardest requirements to meet, separating the Gold Award from other projects like the Boy Scout’s Eagle Scout Project, which is also a community service project.

“The project had to be my idea. I could not just go to Bill Wilson Center and ask them what they needed,” Corno said. “As a result, it took about a month for me to find a project that would be acceptable to the Girl Scout Council and fit needs [of the shelter I was working with].”

Her Gold Award project is called “Music On, World Off.” In her project, she creates a sanctuary by providing iPods and music for teens in shelters like the Bill Wilson Center, which helps teens find foster homes or get adopted.

Most of the devices teens use for listening to music, like phones or laptops aren’t allowed at the shelter because they can connect to the Internet. This forces them to go without any music for their stay.

“[Teens can’t have Internet capable devices] for security purposes, as the administrators of the shelter doesn't want a teen to go online and post something, and then have a potential perpetrator find out the location of the shelter,” Corno said.

Corno said that the idea for this project came from her own experiences.

“I know first hand how much music can help someone who's going through a hard time.” Corno said. “In most cases, when you are listening to music, it calms you down and brings you back down to earth, letting you confront problems with a more stable and calm mind.”

Junior Amanda Rhee, another Girl Scout, also wanted to help kids in her area,  but in a different way. For her Gold Award project, she’s renovating the therapy rooms of the Family and Children Services of Silicon Valley. The rooms are used by deaf children and by families with children who are meeting with the counselors.

Rhee said her project is meant for kids “who might be too afraid or unable to talk, [but] can express themselves through the toys or role play.”

In addition to the renovations, she has also collected used toys, created a new dress up area, built new shelving, repainted the room and organized the toys with new storage units. She kept the toys and remodeling repair cost to an affordable level by asking stores to provide donations or discounts. She also recruited friends as volunteers to help with the remodeling.

No matter what the project, Girl Scouts continue to give back to the community with their Gold Awards.

“Girl Scouts do this award because it builds leadership skills and helps girls learn how to understand a problem in the community and develop a solution,” Corno said.