Three local Girl Scouts earn Gold Awards

One May 6, three graduating Jamestown Ambassador Girl Scouts were recognized and received their Gold Awards at the annual citywide bridging ceremony held at St. Paul’s United Methodist Church. The Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can achieve. Each girl respectively earned the Bronze and Silver awards. These girls also bridged into adult membership.

Megan Kapp, daughter of Dan and Jennifer Kapp, was under the leadership of Ann Haut. Marissa Cofield, daughter of Jim and Marcia Cofield, and Chelsey Staloch, daughter of Corey and Bonnie Staloch, were under the leadership of Marcia Cofield and Corey Staloch.

To earn the Girl Scout Gold Award the girls needed to find a project that could address a local or national issue and be sustainable. Each girl researched her project and completed the initial proposal paperwork including how she would involve the community. The girls each had a interview process with Girl Scouts Dakota Horizon Gold award committee from Sioux Falls, S.D. Upon the approval from the committee each of the girls had to complete her own project within a minimum of 65 hours.

Megan Kapp’s project was a Patriotic Day Camp for youth that was held on Sept. 10, 2011, at the Veterans of Foreign Wars Park. The event was an all-day camp, where participants learned about flag ceremonies, a retired National Guard member spoke about flag etiquette and history, Jim Carlascio spoke about his experiences as a prisoner of war in World War II, and Sgt. Jordan Nygaard and 1st Sgt. Jeff Douty talked about their experiences in the National Guard and serving in the Middle East. Cheryl Seigman with the Disabled American Veterans Auxiliary helped with a beaded flag craft and sang patriotic songs and Carl Siebert assisted with the Flag Retirement Ceremony.

Marissa Cofield’s project was a family hourglass project, which was a three-week event. Families met and learned about family relationships and how to build on them. On the week of the last class a family dinner and dance was held to celebrate the families’ accomplishments. The first week was titled “Me to We: Taking a Me Decision and Turning it into a We Decision” and was presented by Dallas Rosin, youth worker at Concordia Lutheran Church. The second week’s event was Family Communication presented by Christina Rittenbach, Stutsman County Extension agent. The third week’s event was on the importance of family meals presented by Rittenbach. Along with the presentations, Marissa had fun activities planned; one was making a communication book, so that family members could have a place to ask questions and state concerns.

Chelsey Staloch’s project was the Cancer Hat Box. With help of friends, family and community she made a total of 200 hats. She also made 50 bandana bags for the hats. With assistance from Laurel Haroldson from the Jamestown Cancer Support Group and Walz Pharmacy, Chelsey was able to promote the project to the cancer support group and offer the box of hats at the pharmacy. Anyone who has cancer and needs extra hats can go to Walz Pharmacy, take a bag and fill it with hats. The hats can be returned and traded for other hats.

Megan Kapp will attend the University of Mary, Bismarck, this fall to study English education. Marissa Cofield is pursuing a career as an emergency medical technician/paramedic. Chelsey Staloch will be attending Jamestown College this fall to study elementary education.

Tags: community, clubs