Girl Scouts Bridging Ceremony

Girl Scout Community 47's bridging ceremony took place on Thursday night on the stage at Central Elementary School in Edgewater. Bridging is when a Girl Scout transitions or "flies up" to the next level of scouting. Each girl literally walked over a little bridge on the stage and was welcomed by scouts.

In all, 84 Girl Scouts bridged.

In addition, awards were handed out to girls who had completed significant community service projects. Girl Scouts give out the Bronze Award, the third-highest award overall and the highest honor for junior scouts; the Silver Award, the highest honor for Cadettes and the Gold Award, the highest honor in Girl Scouting overall and for senior-level scouts.

Gold Award

From Troop 1609, Hayley Cohen won her Gold Award for refurbishing a nature trail at the Crossroads Day Care Center at . She also created a lesson plan and activities to be used on the nature trail for the preschool students at the center. Hayley's troop leader is Tracie Terneus.

Silver Awards

From Troop 1469's Cassi Whitehead earned her Silver Award, the second highest award in Girl Scouting. She created a community Badge Repository. Cassi collected over 300 leftover insignia, badges and patches from local troop leaders. She sorted them, scanned images, and made individual envelopes for each item. She created an Access database to track the inventory and produce reports which she handed out to leaders. Leaders can review the inventory and get these items free of charge. Cassi is continuing to maintain the repository and database. Cassi's leaders are Kerri Edwards, Edna Graham and Joy Whitehead.

The following Silver Award recipients are all from Troop 2422 led by Becki Hutchison and Teresa Wilson:

• Amber Curles single-handedly collected more than 5,000 stuffed animals from local schools and her martial arts studio. She washed the “stuffies,” stitched them up when necessary, and packed them with care to send to children in Appalachia via Mission of Peace. Other recipients included Washington Children's Hospital, Sara’s House, Giving Back of Baltimore, Boys and Girls Clubs, and the Salvation Army.  Some of her animals made it to children in Haiti, following the earthquake disaster.
• Hailey Palmer, Diana Rapine and Katie Smith planned and executed the 2010 Sweetheart Hoedown Dance for our Girl Scout community. This is an annual dance for girls and their dads (or step dads or grandpas or other adult male escorts). The girls secured the facility and DJ, made decorations, and organized food donations and volunteers. Each attendee received a patch and commemorative photo. As an additional service, items were collected for and donated to the SPCA of Anne Arundel County.
• Taylor Leigh, Gianella Quintana and Kerrie-Anne Sutton planned the KidZone at the 2010 Relay for Life at , a tent for kids to have something free to do while the moms (and/or dads) are walking for the American Cancer Society. In addition to games and crafts, the girls planned for first aid, allergies, dehydration, potty-training, check in/out procedures, and sanitation. More than 50 children utilized their service during the event.
• Rachel Bergamini, Shannon Flaherty, Adrian Gusky, Brooke Hutchison, Siena Manoogian and Olivia Nootenboom removed 107 pounds of trash from the South River and added more than 400 bay grasses of two varieties to improve the river’s health for their project, Mission: Save the South River. They cleaned the shoreline, developed new habitat, and educated the public via their Scout-filmed documentary video. Funds to purchase bay grasses were raised by making and selling “Bay Rocks” necklaces.
• Olivia Blandford and Kristine Mar created "Awareness through Art." They met the owner and artists of Tracy’s Kids Art Therapy Program and then collected hundreds of new art supplies to benefit this organization. The girls also babysat to earn money to purchase art supplies. They presented their project to 250 performing and visual arts students at Bates Middle School, teaching them about pediatric art therapy and encouraging them to run their own art collection drive.
• Alex Burk and Alyssa Nelson’s "A and A Games Drive" collected more than 250 new and used games for children. The girls set up collection boxes at churches and local businesses, checking them weekly. Each game was inspected to ensure that it had all of its pieces. The girls donated the games to s Open Door after care program and Children’s Hospital because they had personal connections to these organizations.
• Victoria Mosley, Courtney Pierce, Emma Stephenson and Ashley Wray collected used books for "Santa Paws Delivers Literacy." The girls collaborated with Central Elementary’s PTA, the Movie Licensing company, the Tyler Heights librarian Paula Borinski, and several volunteers to run this holiday-themed “Movie Night” at Central Elementary. The entry "fee" to see the movie was to bring a new or gently used book(s). The thousands of books they collected that night and $130 from concessions sales were donated to Tyler Heights Elementary School’s summer Bookmobile, which provides books for summer reading to children in need in the Annapolis area.