June 22, 2011 THE VILLADOM TIMES III • Page 29 Gold Awards (continued from page 5) Davies, a member of Troop 913, will be a senior at the Bergen County Academies in September. Her service project was a Victorian Pastimes Fair for girls at Upper Saddle River’s historical museum, the Hopper-Goetschius House, built in 1739. She researched Victorian life and created informative tri-fold boards describing different activities. She set up interactive stations throughout the property, each focusing on a different part of Victorian life. Visitors learned about this era while making calling cards and potpourri sachets, decorating fans, trying on Victorian-style clothes and hats, attending a tea party, practicing their penmanship in a one-room school house, and playing period games. Davies created a keepsake pamphlet with a page to accompany each station, providing more information and activities for the girls. Plans are underway for the program to be developed into an annual Victorian Day. Francis carried out her project at the Eastern Christian Children’s Retreat. Francis taught expressive art classes to the adult residents of the retreat and showed them to use art to express their feelings in a supportive environment. She helped them make cards for family members, personal banners, and holiday decorations. If someone was feeling low, Francis taught that person to create art to let out the negative emotions. To ensure the classes had positive impact, Francis surveyed staff. The response was unanimous: The residents expressed themselves in much better manners both during and after the classes. Francis realized they often had trouble expressing how they were really feeling, and how to express themselves with art. Francis is a member of Troop 1233. She will be a junior at Immaculate Heart Academy this fall. Kester, who is a member of Girl Scout Troop 1233, undertook a renovation project at Shelter Our Sisters, an organization that assists women who are victims of abusive relationships. The room she renovated is in a transition home, where women who are leaving the shelter go to become more independent. The room she renovated was a small bedroom. Kester scrubbed and vacuumed the floor numerous times and painted. She then collected donations of furniture and accessories, refinished a bedroom set, repainted a floor lamp, and bought other pieces and bedroom accessories with money from donated gift cards. She sewed a window treatment and pillow cover. She also went to Girl Scout troops and her church youth group to discuss domestic violence. These groups traced their hands onto card stock and decorated them using watercolor paint. The “hands” were used to create three collages, which she framed. They are now hanging at Shelter Our Sisters homes, including the transition home where she completed the renovation. Kester will be a junior at Northern Highlands this fall. Laiks, a member of Troop 953, will be a freshman at Colgate University this fall. For her service project, she created a free improvisation summer theater camp called Camp Center Stage Confidence for the children of Paterson’s Camp YDP. Before the camp commenced at the Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church in Upper Saddle River, she trained her peers to be camp counselors. The Girl Scouts spent a week with the kids, teaching them everything they knew about the art of improvisation. They played games, enjoyed snacks, and bonded. At the end of the week, the children put on a performance at the church. Instead of charging admission, Laiks collected school supplies and first aid supplies to send back with the campers. Marten’s project was entitled “No Bullies on Broadway.” This member of Troop 1233 believes that bullying Lillian Laiks, Larissa Marten, Cara Lynn Minichetti, Ashley Marie Pagano, Taylor Thornley Sivori, and Laura Marie Tantillo. gravely affects a person’s self-esteem. She held a twoweek summer camp promoting anti-bullying for children in her community. During the first week, she produced a puppet show, “Not Important,” which she wrote. During the second week, she staged her full one-act play, “Scared of What People Will Think.” Each day, she led different activities. During the camp, she and the children played warm-up/theater games; sang songs; made costumes, puppets, and props that were used in the performances; and rehearsed. She also discussed a word of the day that related to anti-bullying (such as courage, respect, and kindness), and all the crafts and games related to the word of the day. Marten is a student at Northern Highlands. She will begin her junior year this fall. Minichetti, a member of Girl Scout Troop 945, will be a junior at Immaculate Heart Academy. She renovated two rooms at The Emergency Women’s Shelter at Eva’s Village in Paterson. She organized garage and bake sales and had a costume jewelry fundraiser to raise funds. She then cleaned, painted, and decorated the front entryway. She hung curtains and blinds; installed benches for seating and storage, coat hooks, a board for messages, an umbrella stand, boot trays, and a rug; and stenciled a greeting on the wall. In the living room, she hung curtains and pictures; put slipcovers on the furniture; and brought in two rugs, a lamp, a decorative rack, snack trays, and leather cubes for seating and storage. She repaired the existing wooden shutters, hung the TV on the wall, provided a cabinet for storage, and added a small table for registration. She stenciled a motivational quote on the wall. She stocked the room with board games, movies, magazines, and books for the women. When the renovations were complete, she organized a Game Night. Minichetti plans to continue to work with Eva’s Village on other projects this summer. Pagano’s Gold Award project involved the renovation of a room at the Residential Halfway House at Eva’s Village in Paterson. The house offers a comprehensive treatment program for women with alcohol and drug addiction. The treatment supports the transition to a life of dignity and independence. Pagano renovated the common room being used by 36 women. With help from friends, she organized a Rummage Sale to raise money. She also reached out to companies and individuals to support her efforts. Pagano was able to buy all the necessary furniture, rugs, lamps, and home accessories she needed for her project. After she cleaned and painted, she finalized the layout of the furniture. To celebrate the completion of the renovation project, she organized a Game Night with refreshments for the women living in the house. The women now have a comfortable place to relax and enjoy their free time. A member of Girl Scout Troop 913, Pagano will be a senior at Northern Highlands this fall. Sivori, a member of Troop 1285, is a student Saddle River Day School, where she will begin her senior year this fall. After researching literacy rates in New Jersey, Sivori decided to work in Paterson, which has one of the lowest literacy rates in the state. She volunteered at Oasis: A Haven for Women and Children. She began with a book drive that netted over 2,600 books. She solicited and painted bookshelves, decorated a cozy reading corner, and provided donated books on tape and a CD player. In addition to conducting weekly reading sessions, she organized activities and crafts for a Holiday Party in December, recruited seven assistants, and solicited food and prizes. Each child went home with a new, gift-wrapped book with a candy cane and a “Snowman Soup” bag that contained a winter poem, a packet of hot chocolate, mini marshmallows, and chocolates. For Valentine’s Day, she planned an arts and crafts session where participants made cards and decorative bookmarks for their parents. In March, she conducted a Book Fair, and each child selected books (at no cost) to take home along with a bag of homemade cookies. She also wrote a book in Spanish and English for the children entitled “The Girl Scout Adventure.” Before she began the project, she conducted a written survey of 47 children at Oasis that showed 13 children did not like to read. The success of her project was highlighted with the final survey results revealing 46 out of the 47 children stating that they now love to read. Tantillo is a member of Troop 891 and will be a senior at Northern Highlands in September. She promoted science to younger children, and girls in particular. She believes that children can best understand science through experiments, but found that Upper Saddle River lacked enough space for the K-2 classes to conduct experiments. She cleaned the Reynolds School Science Center and reorganized everything that was in good condition. Extra supplies and materials related to science programs in the other grades were brought to the center in an effort to recycle and save money. She redecorated the science center with fresh paint, rugs, white boards, and curtains. The second phase of her project focused on bringing science to life for younger children. She organized and ran science experiment tables at the Bergen Highlands United Methodist Church Paterson Day and the Eva’s Village Hope Residence Carnival. She also worked with Ms. Thies, the Reynolds first grade chair, and developed a series of experiments for their “Gravity and Balance” science unit. She ran five separate labs for the seven first grade classes in the newly renovated science center. She conducted nine experiments in each lab, including Newton’s Cradle, Floating Coin and Lemon, Human Balance, Beaker and Tablecloth, Buckle Up, Checker Challenge, Inclined Plane, The Magnificent Coin Trick, and Pail of Water. She gave a presentation to the board of education about her project, and the board presented her with the People Make the Difference Certificate of Appreciation.