Page 12 THE VILLADOM TIMES IV • February 8, 2012 Mahwah As the Girl Scouts of the USA prepares to celebrate its 100th Anniversary on March 12, 16 young women from Mahwah have distinguished themselves by earning the Silver Award, the second highest honor a Girl Scout can earn. Each Girl Scout identified a need in the community, and identified ways they could make a positive impact. Each project needed to be at least 40 leadership-driven hours in all for each girl, and could be done individually or as a group. Summaries of the service projects follow. MaryRose Spinella of Troop 1378 developed an AntiBullying/Karate Confidence Clinic. This utilized the Scout’s training as a second degree Junior Black Belt to combat bullying in a non-violent, positive manner. She presented the proposal to the superintendent of schools to gain approval to hold the clinic in a Mahwah school. The Girl Scouts who attended performed skits, and shared information and interactive karate movements. Participants received a comprehensive anti-bullying handbook. In addition, food donations to the Mahwah Center for Food Action were requested and 22 overflowing bags were collected. Ashley Klein of Troop 1378 presented Cheering Up Alzheimer’s Patients. She researched the disease and educated the fourth and fifth grade Girl Scouts about it. After visiting the Care One Facility in Wayne, which has a specialized wing for Alzheimer’s patients, Klein worked with the staff and came up with a plan to hold workshops for younger Girl Scouts to create cheerful projects to brighten up the patients’ rooms and lives. Workshops were held at Joyce Kilmer School, and the projects were delivered to the patients, who reportedly received them with smiles of appreciation. Meg Heller of Troop 798 coached soccer for Mahwah’s kindergarten recreational soccer team. After taking the required course on coaching and becoming a Rutgers Safety Certified coach, Heller worked with her team for 10 weeks. Heller wanted to instill a love for exercise in the kids while teaching them the importance of sportsmanship. Allison Christine Homler of Troop 903 presented Discovering Birds as a means of getting children to go outdoors and be more active. She thought it was important for young children to learn about birds and their habitats because children see birds every day. Homler wanted them to know how to feed the birds and how to make birdhouses. Building birdhouses and bird watching are fun family and troop activities that are inexpensive and help beautify the community while bringing people together to work for a common goal. The program included a workshop for Daisies, and multiple presentations to a pre-K and two kindergarten classes. Many of the children drew pictures of the birds and later sent them to her in a scrapbook thanking her for teaching them all about birds. She painted and donated Local Girl Scouts achieve Silver Award status Mahwah’s 16 Girl Scout Silver Award winners. a birdhouse to Mahwah Fire Company #3 and Mahwah’s Norfolk Village Senior Housing. She also donated a hummingbird decoration to Tender Years Preschool, where she accomplished most of her project. Gilda’s Club Art Project was organized by Julia Alana Anzano of Troop 798 to help parents and children battling cancer express their feelings and emotions through art. Anzano led several art projects, such as paper chain bracelets depicting colors of cancer awareness, and drew on quilt squares to be framed and hung at Gilda’s Club. ¡Hola Amigas! Spanish Club was led by Alissa Puzo of Troop 1325. The world is an increasingly global community and success in the workplace of the future will require that students have mastered a second language. The¡Hola Amigas! Club was designed to provide exposure to young girls, using characters, games, and crafts to teach themes, names, greetings, colors, foods, and holidays. Girls learned new words at each meeting after a greeting and snack session that included a review of the past week’s vocabulary. Club members attended almost every session and asked if a second session would be offered. A number of girls went on to enroll in a local after school Spanish program, and all of the club members went on to join Girl Scouts. Troop 836 member Tori Alexis May organized Pre-K Learning Sessions to help children get ready for kindergarten. She determined each child’s skill level and then developed appropriate lesson plans. She spoke to a kindergarten teacher and a reading teacher and applied their knowledge and feedback. She helped the students with reading, writing, number activities, and more. She later re-evaluated each child, and found that all of them had improved from the original testing. Saving Seniors was developed by Alexa M. Madden of Troop 798. Madden visited local senior centers and handed out emergency medical cards that include information about an individual’s medications and allergies, and emergency contact information. The cards are intended to help (continued on page 16)