Eleven Union County girls earn Girl Scout Bronze Award Ashley Adams, Lee Ann Book, Sequin Cook, Hannah Edmunds, Ciara Fetterly, Sierra Harper, Christina Lehew, McKenzie Marks, Amanda Miller, Courtney Miller, and Rachel Miller, Girl Scouts of Troop 155 and 420, have completed requirements for earning the Bronze Award, Junior Girl Scouts highest award. These girls are some of the first girls in the area to receive this recognition.

The Girl Scout Bronze Award, requires the girl to learn the leadership and planning skills necessary to follow through on a project that makes a positive impact in her community. Working towards this award demonstrates the girls’ commitment to helping others, improving her community and the world, and becoming the best that she can be. The Girl Scout Bronze Award recognizes a girl’s commitment to excellence as she develops skills and values to meet present and future challenges in her life.

Ashley, Lee Ann, Sequin, Hannah, Ciara, Sierra, Christina, McKenzie, Amanda, Courtney, and Rachel are members of Girl Scouts USA, Conifer Council - Union Association. They began working toward the Girl Scout Bronze Award in 2006. To earn the award, the girls had to design and carry out a plan of activities to show her promise to help others, improve her community and world, and become the best that she can be. To complete the requirement for volunteer community service, each girl must complete at least 15 hours of service.

The focus of the Bronze Award project for Troop 155 was organizing and operating a food pantry to benefit the Smackover community through the First United Methodist Church. They did activities that brought attention to the fact that people who go without food are not just on the other side of the world -some of them are right here in our own community.

Skills learned in operating the food pantry were: shopping for the best food bargains, planning balanced meals, and how to budget the limited financial resources available for the food pantry. Additionally, the girls planned and packed bags of food for different size households. They had to insure that the families had balanced meals for 5 to 7 days. Overall, approximately 60 families (including several elderly shut-in’s) of the Smackover community received food distributions from the Girl Scout food pantry operated at First United Methodist, Smackover. The girls had a positively delightful experience visiting with patrons of the pantry as they helped load groceries into their cars. Upon completion of the Bronze Award requirements, the girls were surprised at the number of hours that they contributed to their community – 50 hours each! Each girl had gone above and beyond what was required of them and they had fun doing it. As the church takes a new road of partnering with the Salvation Army, the girls will help at the pantry when they are available this summer. The pantry will be open the 2nd Tuesday of each month from 10 am until 1 pm and is being held in the First United Methodist Fellowship Hall, Smackover. The focus of the Bronze Award project for Troop 420 was to assist at Hope Landing with the care of horses used in the hippotherapy program. Hope Landing serves both disabled and able body children, thus the Girl Scouts were helping their peers. The girls studied about horses and learned how to properly care for them. They made grooming containers from recycled materials for each horse. With funds raised from cookies sales, the girls then purchased grooming items for each horse. Hope Landing is in the process of building a barn for its horses. In preparation for each horse having its own stall, the girls made wood nameplates with the horse’s name burned into the wood. While working on their Bronze Award, the girls discovered that they can make a difference in the community in which they live. They all worked toward making Union County a better place to live. An Awards Banquet will be held June 3rd to honor the achievements of these young ladies.