Eight Girl Scouts from Plano troop 6600 have recently been awarded the Girl Scout Bronze Award for donating nearly 3,000 books to four local organizations. The Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Junior can earn. It recognizes the leadership and planning skills required to identify a need in the community, and then follow through with a project that makes a positive difference in the community. These Scouts feel that reading opens up doors in many facets of life, and they wanted to share that gift with other children. Earning the awards were Celine Chung, Audrey Dill, Teresa Gagliano, Nethra Ganesh, Mako Gibson, Victoria Hathaway, Brena Seibel, and Grace Wilson.
The Scouts, 4th and 5th graders from Davis and Daffron Elementary Schools in Plano, solicited donations from the community, held book drives for new and gently used books at a Girl Scout event, and at Cane’s restaurant in Plano. The girls used funds that they raised to buy materials and supplies to build a library for SPARK in Dallas, an organization that strives to ignite the spark of creativity inherent in all children. They built a library consisting of 449 “books to inspire creativity” for all the children who use the facility to access.
The Scouts donated 1,566 books to Plano Family Literacy (PFL). PFL is a school through PISD whose mission is to build healthy families by working with the entire family unit developing life skills, literacy skills and a strong commitment to family wholeness. Many of this book donation will be used to enhance the library at PFL. Some of the books will be used as home gifts so that children will have access to books to read at home. Some of the books will be used to place in new “Little Free Libraries” that PFL is putting up in community parks and public places.
The Scouts also donated 503 books to Collin County’s Boys and Girls Club in Frisco, a program that works to provide a safe and positive place for at risk children in the vital after school hours.
Finally, they donated 441 books to The Ebby House, a residential home for young women who have aged out of the foster care system. The program works to, instill life skills, and provide housing, healthcare, education, career guidance, job training, and permanency. In our intergenerational community, to young women.
Troop 6600 is very proud of the impact their project has on their local community. In the words of one Scout; “If you give a man a fish, he eats for a day. If you teach a man to fish, he eats for a lifetime. By teaching children to appreciate reading and creativity, we help to give them a lifetime of knowledge.”