Local Girl Scout Goes for the Gold

Over mid-winter break, Edgemont High School junior Kathleen Yam hosted the Asian Experience at the Scarsdale Teen Center as a part of her Girl Scouts Gold Award Project. Beginning on Saturday, Feb. 19 and ending a week later, the Asian Experience sought to introduce Scarsdale and Edgemont to Yam's culture. 

“When we [Kathleen’s family] first moved here from California, I didn’t know where anything [Asian grocery stores, etc.] was located. Once I discovered the locations, I wanted to share it with the community,” said Kathleen referring to her inspiration for organizing Asian-inspired events for her project. 

Kathleen has been a Girl Scout for 10 years. The Girl Scouts Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Senior can earn, and Kathleen must complete seven steps to win the award:

•  Build a framework for the project
•  Earn the Girl Scout Gold Leadership Award Charm 
• Earn the Girl Scout Gold Career Award Charm 
• Earn the Girl Scout Gold 4Bs Challenge Award Charm
• Plan the Girl Scout Gold Award Project
• Put the plans in action
• Reflect.

Kathleen’s troop leader Mary Rooney explained that the Girl Scout Gold Award Project requires Kathleen to identify and investigate a community issue she cares about, recruit others to help, create and present the plan to the Girl Scout council for approval, take action to carry out her plan and educate and inspire others.

Another requirement for Kathleen’s Girl Scout Gold Award project is that it must be sustainable and create lasting change in her community. To ensure its longevity, the Edgemont Junior/Senior High School Cultural Club will continue the project after Kathleen completes it for her award.

Kathleen organized four events for the Asian Experience to introduce the Scarsdale and Edgemont communities to her Asian – mainly Chinese – culture. The first event commenced with an Asian movie night, where guests watched the comedy “Rush Hour 3” (2007) starring the popular crime-fighting duo Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker, along with the biopic “Ip Man” (2008), which traces the story of Yip Man as the first Wing Chun martial arts master and teacher to the legendary Bruce Lee.

The second event in the line-up was Asian game night featuring Ping Pong, Chinese checkers and Go. Competitive table tennis or ping pong is a celebrated sport in Asia, with some of the strongest teams in table tennis world championships hailing from China. Surprisingly, Chinese checkers did not originate in China, although the game is typically associated with the culture. The ancient Chinese game Go, “weiqi” in Chinese, is said to be over 4,000 years old and is a game of strategy.

Following the Asian game night was an Asian crafting session. Kathleen and her mother, Bonnie Yam, and sister Elizabeth worked with the younger children and their parents in creating Origami, and assistant Patrick Yu, a student at the Westchester Community College, worked with the teenagers. The paper folding art form ranged in skill from simple to complex, evident from the variety in Origami examples produced by Kathleen.

Kathleen focused on an easier Origami design for the younger girls, who worked on folding the rose. The children’s parents initially attempted to teach themselves Origami designs by following print-out instructions until Bonnie went over to help the parents correctly fold their Origami paper. As I watched, I recalled learning how to fold the frog, the crane, the chair and the fortune teller when I was younger.

The last event in the Asian Experience was the Asian food event where participants learned how to make boiled dumplings.  Kathleen and her mom Bonnie prepared the minced meat for the dumplings in advance.

Sitting at a table with Kathleen, she showed me how to make dumplings, explaining to me that as a child, she would make dumplings with her grandmother. 

I first laid out a wonton wrapper in a plate. Then, I dipped one finger into a small bowl of water and lined the very top and bottom edges of the wonton paper to moisten it and allow it to serve as a type of adhesive. Next, I scooped out a small portion of minced meat and placed it in the center of the wanton wrapper. Lastly, I brought the top and bottom of the wanton paper together to fold over the meat. Finally, I dropped my completed dumplings into a pot of boiling water. When the dumplings were ready, they rose to the top of the water. The cooking took approximately 5-7 minutes.

Bonnie Yam also served bubble tea and Hong Kong milk tea. I tried the milk tea, which was delicious.

In addition to the Asian Experience at the Scarsdale Teen Center, Kathleen also hosted a Chinese Kung Fu demonstration and Chinese Dance at the Scarsdale Public Library in January. She is in the process of organizing her last event for her project in May, which will include performances and demonstrations from martial arts groups, and participation from the Scarsdale and Edgemont schools culture organizations.

Here at Scarsdale Patch.com, we wish Kathleen luck on her journey in “going for the Gold.”