Good Friend, Inc. Benefits From Girl Scouts Silver Award Project

Press release from GFI:

Sept. 3, 2021

Good Friend, Inc. (GFI) was the beneficiary of Waukesha Catholic Schools Girl Scout Troop 8339’s Silver Award Project that will help middle schools along their journey to autism acceptance. The Girl Scouts presented their summation to GFI in July, explaining the full scope of the year-long project which included a collaboration with their school faculty, a monetary donation collected during Autism Acceptance Month (April), and an art piece showcasing the 159 unique venues that GFI visited to deliver its autism awareness-acceptance-empathy message during its first 13 years of operation.

“Working with the Waukesha Catholic Schools Girl Scouts Troop on their project was a highlight of our year,” said Chelsea Budde, Executive Director of GFI. “Projects such as this confirm that the time and effort we put into creating our programs and services are making a proper impact on the community. We are so grateful for the generosity of the Waukesha Catholic Schools community, and hope to continue our partnership to foster meaningful inclusion of autistic community members.”

Though the size of this Troop has dwindled over the years, these three Cadettes, Emma Lenz, Adela Marie Johnson, and Emily Bartels, who’ve been together since first grade, undertook an ambitious Silver Award Service Project. First, they advocated to Waukesha Catholic Schools’ leadership that GFI should present its citizenship training programs in each of the middle school’s health classes. Second, the girls orchestrated a fundraiser, whereby staff and students could make a donation in order to relax their uniform requirement for a day at Waukesha Catholic Schools during Autism Awareness Month, raising over $1,400 for GFI. Third, they developed a toolkit for other Girl Scout Troops and schools to utilize to bring GFI’s program to its school.

Finally, they created, with the artistic guidance of GFI’s Co-founder and Creative Director Denise Schamens, a heart-shaped mural made of paper feathers that represent all the schools and conferences where GFI has previously given presentations.

This press release was produced by GFI. The views expressed here are the author's own.