Amelia's Girl Scout troop achieved a milestone this year by completing the work necessary for the Bronze Award. The Bronze Award is the highest level that Junior Girl Scouts can achieve before advancing to the Cadette level. According to the Girl Scout website, "the Girl Scout Bronze Award requires the Girl Scout to learn the leadership and planning skills necessary to follow through on a project that makes a positive impact on her community. Working towards the Girl Scout Bronze Award demonstrates her commitment to helping others, improving her community and the world, and becoming the best she can be."
The service project that the girls completed for the award involved providing support for a local refugee assimilation program. Catholic Ministries helps refugees just after they arrive in Dallas by providing them with a furnished apartment filled with basic necessities. The girls raised money to purchase items for the charity's supply closet and toured the Catholic Ministries office to learn about their refugee programs. Then on a few Sundays earlier this year the girls and their parents worked in small groups to set up some apartments.
I helped Amelia's group on a very cold Sunday in early March. The charity provided a basic amount of furniture (beds, mattresses, and a table and chairs) directly in the apartment, and we picked up assorted furnishings, such as lamps, sheets, pots, pans and dishes from the charity's headquarters. Below Amelia and Isabelle are moving around mattresses to set up the beds in our apartment.
Amelia, Isabelle, Megan, and Lily pose in front of the set up bedroom they set up.
By achieving the Bronze Award the girls will move on and become Cadettes. To symbolize "bridging" to the next level, the local Girl Scout Council held a bridging ceremony on Saturday. The ceremony was located on the Continental Avenue Bridge just south of downtown. The large white bridge in the photo below is The Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge, a newer bridge that opened in Dallas two years ago. The two bridges are located next to each other, and they cross the Trinity River and link downtown Dallas with south Dallas. South Dallas is a poorer area of town that is currently being (successfully) revitalized with new economic development.
The Continental Avenue Bridge is pictured below. The bridge was empty when we arrived around 8:45 a.m. The weather on Saturday morning was gorgeous so it was fun to get out early to an area of Dallas we don't get to enjoy much.
It looks like the city is working hard to make the bridge a pedestrian friendly area. There were dozens of benches and decorative planters scattered all along the bridge, plus a few playground structures for children to enjoy. Amelia and Madeline stand out below in their green vests.
The girls lined up by troop along the bridge before the ceremony. The troops started their bridging walk half way across the bridge and then walked to the end for the ceremony. Downtown is depicted in the background.
Below is most of Amelia's troop. Amelia is in the middle in the white shorts.
I am sure I was likely affected more by the service project than Amelia, but I know we both had our own take-away thoughts from the experience. Setting up the apartment was somewhat uncomfortable for me. The apartment was in a very poor area of town known for its large immigrant population. And while I felt safe within this particular apartment community while we were there, it was obvious that our group did not belong to the area. I have no idea what the rent on the very small two bedroom apartment is per month, but I know it can't be much. The apartment was old and run-down, though clean because the smell of bleach and new paint was overwhelming enough to make you want to gag. As supervisors, the moms all thought at first we could leave the doors open to air out the horrific smells, but since we set up on a below-freezing day this wasn't a feasible option.
I believe the family was resettling from the Middle East or northern Africa, and it made me sad to think that these conditions were better than wherever they came from. I kept thinking that they would likely be so grateful for this new beginning and place to live in America, while at the same time I felt the conditions were terrible. Despite this, the girls worked hard to make the place comforting, even getting into debates over which colors should be matched together for the towels in the bathroom for the kids versus the adults. I could tell that Amelia was feeling grateful for her more comfortable home, though she and the other girls tried to find nice things to say about the apartment as well. I am glad that our troop leaders worked hard to set up this as the girls' service project.
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