Hello, World! My name is Holly W, and I am a Girl Scout working on my Girl Scout Gold Award. The Gold Award is the highest achievement that a Girl Scout can get, where we can pursue a topic that is important to us to create a sustainable impact on the community.
I love nature, especially animals. Because of this, I decided to direct my Girl Scout Gold Award towards creating nature trails, including educational graphic panels and fun interactive activities to go along with it. I have spent over 100 hours so far communicating with my team, designing my graphic panels, building activities, and planning the trails.
To achieve this goal, I have partnered with the Pure Hope Foundation, a nonprofit located in my grandparent’s town in Texas, which is dedicated towards restoring survivors of sex trafficking. To help them achieve this goal, my nature trails will provide opportunities for Eco-Therapy and Nature-Therapy.
With the funds that I received from the Jack Linger Explorer Grant, my vision of is turning into reality! The funds will be used to pay for the printing of the educational graphic panels that I designed onto high-quality, long lasting materials.
My project has been completed. Here is a timeline of events!
- June 2020: My Gold Award Project began!
- July 2020: I travelled to Texas to present my vision to Mrs. Lee and Mr. Morris, the Founder and Executive directors of the Pure Hope Foundation. They who were enthusiastic about my project, and were excited for me to begin.
- August 2020 – February 2021: I designed 11 out of my proposed 18 graphic panels. I also planned out where the three nature trails will go, although they have not been blazed yet.
- March 2021: I travelled to Texas again to present my progress report to Mrs. Lee and Mr. Morris. I also put up some bluebird nest boxes on the property.
- April 2021: I reviewed and finalized all of the 11 panels so far so that they can be sent to be printed on high-quality and long-lasting materials.
- May 2021: I began working on the interactive activities that will accompany the graphic panels. I created the first activity: “Measure your Wingspan!” I also created notecards with my artwork on them to be sold at the Pure Hope Foundation gift shop.
- June 2021: I travelled to Texas once again to install the 11 panels onto the trails. I also finished the “Measure your Wingspan!” activity and installed it onto the trail.
- July 2021: I continued created more panels, this time making 3 to act as introductions to each of the trails, and 1 to act as a map. I also received my Gold Award from the Girl Scout committee!
- August 2021: I created another interactive activity for the trails: face-hole cutouts for people to take pictures with.
- October 2021: I returned to Texas for the final time of this project for the Grand Opening after the final 3 panels and the map were installed and the Welcome Center was completed. After the Grand Opening, my project was officially over, although I plan to improve the trails with more panels and activities long into the future.
This is a very basic description of my project. If you would like to learn more in-depth about my graphic panels, my project, and the people I have worked with, feel free to explore my blogsite!