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| Contributed photo by the Girl Scouts of Maine Girl Scouts with Troop 1092 receiving their Silver Awards on June 22 at Colby College in Waterville were, from back, Sarah Draper, Conner Spencer and Samantha Tourk. |
By Natalie De La Garza
Staff Writer
Three Caribou Girl Scouts received their prestigious Silver Awards on June 22 at a ceremony held at Colby College in Waterville.
The Silver Award is the highest accomplishment Girl Scouts can earn as Cadets, and Troop 1092 members Sarah Draper, Conner Spencer and Samantha Tourk were recognized during the ceremony for achieving the distinctive award.
The girls teamed up to earn their Silver Awards, working together to help Catholic Charities further their mission of feeding the hungry. Inspired to make sure the food pantry shelves in Aroostook County stayed stocked, the scouts strived to collect 66 watermelon totes filled with clothing and other cloth items for Catholic Charities.
When Catholic Charities recycles 400,000 pounds of fabric, the organization earns roughly enough money to feed The County for a month. It takes 66 watermelon totes worth of clothing and fabric to fill one of Catholic Charities tractor trailers, and one tractor trailer brings the non-profit a third of the way toward their 400,000 pound goal.
The three scouts exceeded their initial goal of 66 totes in a short time after starting the project last spring.
“I had expected to barely reach our goal of one tractor trailer load within the time we had, but it took basically a couple weekends to complete our goal and surpass it,” Draper said.
The scouts had months to complete their goal, but collections wrapped up in just a few weeks after they received a total of 92 watermelon totes — 26 over their initial expectations.
“It did take a lot of hard work, but I feel very satisfied with what we accomplished and how much community support we received,” said Draper.
Each scout also expressed her thanks for the support she received from family members and specifically, Claudette Draper, Nicole Spencer and Troop Leader Jacqui Tourk.
“They drove us around when we did our collections and supported us,” Samantha Tourk said.
As the scouts’ Silver Award Project had tremendous support from the community, the movement was continued by the National Honors Society chapters of Aroostook County last fall; over the school year, students in 10 schools collected about 155 totes of fabric for Catholic Charities.
“I was glad when we finally finished our project, but I was even happier to know that other people would continue it after we finished,” Tourk said.
The tremendous community support received by the scouts for the project is something none of the girls will soon forget.
“This project has gotten me more motivated with volunteering and with the Girl Scouts,” Spencer said. “Thank you to everyone who was associated in any part of this project. [Everyone’s efforts], no matter how large or small, helped turn this idea into something amazing.”
