Maryanne Gabbett, T61254, Achieves Girl Scout Gold Award

Maryanne Gabbett, of Girl Scout Troop 61254 of Bridgewater, New Jersey has completed her Girl Scout Gold Award Project which was to develop a “Blankets for Buddies” program focusing on 4 county and independent animal shelters/ rescue organizations located in Somerset and Hunterdon Counties (NJ). These facilities included: Tabby’s Place of Ringoes, NJ, Lost Paws Rescue of Pittstown, NJ, the Somerset Regional Animal Shelter of Bridgewater, NJ and St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center of Branchburg, NJ. Maryanne is a High School student at Montgomery Academy located in Basking Ridge, NJ.

Prior to beginning this project, Maryanne visited each of these 4 groups and conducted informational interviews to identify what community based needs truly existed. Maryanne identified that animals need warmth and comfort to calm themselves and to help support their physical and emotional well-being and healing and that emotionally well balanced and comforted animals are more likely to be adopted. She also identified that Shelters, Rescues and Foster families are in need of many, many types of supplies and that there are many desperately needed supplies that are less likely to be donated by the average shelter drive. Her goal was to provide for cats and small dog breeds that would find comfort in playing with and burrowing into her No-Sew Blankets and playing/ cuddling with small, soft fleece toys. This identified need generated her idea for her “Blankets for Buddies” project.

During the 2013-2014 School year, Maryanne managed a team of 25 volunteers across 4 states who helped her to sort, organize and cut fabric per her templates and then create over 500 fleece blankets and toys. This team helped her to ultimately provide donations to each of the 4 facilities this spring in which included 280 fleece blankets and 221 toys. All donations were handmade. Maryanne and her team of 26 volunteers contributed approximately 547.75 community service hours to the project under her direction. These volunteers included friends, family, young adults with special needs and senior citizens. A significant bonus identified during this project was that tying the blankets and toys served as a therapeutic, calming activity for all of volunteers who were involved in the project. On May 19, 2014, Maryanne was awarded the “Humane Hero Award” from the St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center.

Community members can learn how to make these fleece blankets by viewing her You Tube Video “No-Sew Pet Blankets” which is located at: www.youtube.com/channel/UC34jn8aUKSxOF6eegMQT9Bg

For more information about the Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey West Service Center contact them at 908-518-4400 or at www.gshnj.org. For more information about the Montgomery Academy, please call the school at (908) 234-2840 or visit the school’s website at http://montgomeryacademyonline.org/.