Girl Scouts and volunteers honored
by Mary Clare Simon
Girl Scout Service Unit 87 held its awards and recognition ceremony on March 9 at St. Joseph Church, Fullerton. Reverend Kathryn Wajada, pastor of Epiphany Episcopal Church, gave the invocation. Rev. Wajada, who has been a priest for 22 years, spoke of her experience as a Senior Scout. A defining moment for her was attending an international scouting meeting at Lake Champlain. She remembers watching the sunset over Lake Champlain and realizing that people from all over the world were a part of scouting and for her God was a part of that, too.
The highlights of the day were the awarding of the Bronze Medal in scouting and the Religious Awards to several young ladies. To earn a bronze medal each girl had to devote 15 hours planning and implementing a service project and also had to earn two badges related to the project. Troop 772 winners were Likhitha Butchireddygan, Stephanie O’Hare and Nicole Warder. Likhitha, in traditional dress, performed dances from her native culture in various assisted living and senior housing centers. Stephanie decided she wanted to beautify the grounds of the Perring Parkway Nursing Home where her grandfather resides. To accomplish this she held a bake sale to raise funds, then bought spring bulbs and planted them. Nicole adopted a kennel, scraped and painted walls and then painted appropriate designs on them.
State Sen. Katherine A. Klausmeier (D-8) was on hand to help honor Girl Scout Service Unit 87.
Winners from Troop 1112 were Elizabeth Lelonek, Grace Kane and Katie Simon. Elizabeth worked at the Humane Society in Harford County where there is a shelter for rescued horses and ponies. She held a flea market to raise funds to buy food and other needed items for the shelter, and is planning to return there to work with the socialization of the animals. Grace and Katie did their project together spending time with the seniors of the Morningside Assisted Living Center and providing games and entertainment for them. Some of the events they planned were Bingo, a basketball and ring toss competition and a pajama party.
Scouts from Troop 1536 decided they wanted to do a project that would help people, especially children with cancer. Some of the projects involved Hope Lodge, Johns Hopkins Pediatric Cancer Center, Camp Sunrise, and
“Payton’s Tea Party.” The first annual Payton’s Tea Party will help raise money to fund research needed for finding a cure for pediatric cancer. The Tea Party is named for Payton Wright who died last year at the age of five from a very rare form of cancer. The scouts who received awards were: Jamie Marshall, Rebecca Rybczynski, Paige Bowmaster, Jillian Persing, Megan Diventi, Sarah Weniecke, Rachel Dietz, Mercy Oji and Victoria Oji.
Recipients of the “I Live My Faith” Award were Elizabeth Lelonek, Dooriya Kane and Grace Kane, all of Troop 1112. These young ladies collected over 1,000 children’s books that were then delivered to Sarah’s Hope Homeless Shelter.
The Marian Medal was given to Aloise Diedrich, Roxanne Diedrich, and Kristen Kreiner, all of Troop 1667.
Other recipients were Molly Friedel, Troop 42; Vera Grichuhin, Troop 1536; and Amber Sexton, Troop 173.
Molly and Amber collected 1,500 baby care items that were then donated to pregnancy centers.
Mary Kate Skille was announced as the top cookie seller for service Unit 87 with a total of 510 boxes.
Adult anniversary recognition awards were given to Georgianne Lelonek, Kathy Sexton, Mary Friedel, Kathy Kadow, and Debra Dodge-Hale. Recipients of the Daisy Awards for outstanding volunteer service were Francis Friedel, Sr., Angela Friedel Arsenovic and Petar Arsenovic.
Anna Amrhein, RN was guest speaker. Special guest State Senator Kathy Klausmeier also participated in the Awards ceremony.