Westlake Girl Scout Troop qualifies for Bronze Award

Recipient Anna Barna models her Girl Scout-designed scarf with additional gifts displayed on the shelf.

Since last June, Junior Girl Scout Troop 77125, meeting at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Westlake, has been delighting selected Westlake Meals on Wheels recipients with their efforts to brighten lives. They have delivered to seniors several gifts made by the scouts on a bi-weekly basis.  

These efforts are aimed towards meeting the criteria to achieve the Bronze Award, the highest honor a Junior Girl Scout can achieve. It is a step toward earning their Silver and Gold awards as they progress through the levels in Girl Scouts.

The first requirement of earning the Bronze award is to complete a Girl Scout Journey. The girls collected old socks at elementary schools and participated in the national "Happy Sock" program. They filled the socks with organic catnip and fiberfill and delivered them to Krazy Kitten, a no-kill shelter in Medina. 

Troop leader Andrea Tarolli contacted Meals on Wheels and asked if there was a way the girls could get involved with some of their recipients. The goal: to make people happy! Several hand-made gifts have been delivered over the past six months with nothing expected in return. Gifts included picture frames and pictures of the scouts, a hand-written story of their lives, ornaments, fancy pens and scarves. One happy surprise has been that some of the recipients have responded to their "adopters" by sending notes back to the girls sharing some of the recipient's memories of being scouts themselves or acting as troop leaders when their daughters were young. 

The Scouts have been working towards meeting the time requirement of 20 hours of work for over a year. In May, the Westlake Service Unit honors scouts who have achieved Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards. This year the scouts of Troop 77125 will be able to participate in the awards ceremony.