Silver Award Requirements
2012 Silver Awards

Lindsey Oren, Paige Santiago, Caroline Treschitta (Troop 50264) - Book Shelves and Books

Lindsey, Paige and Caroline earned the Silver Award by working together and individually. They designed, built, painted and donated two bookshelves and assorted books for three different recipients. All of the girls procured books for donating. Paige designed the shelf and solicited the wood donation, Lindsey explored and contacted donation sites to arrange for these donations and Caroline organized the books for condition and appropriateness. The first shelf unit was donated to Malta  House, a safe house shelter for women and young children seeking safety from domestic violence. The books given there were for the children, as well as a large collection of parenting specific books for the mothers. The second shelf unit was donated locally to Founders Hall where the members were excited to have a place to display artwork they've created in classes there. The remainder of the books were donated to the Ridgefield Library for their Spring Book Sale. This project was primarily designed to promote literacy. 

Emily Borrello (Troop 50597) - Blythedale Children's School Reading Nook and Books

Emily created a reading nook and donated books to the K-1 classroom of Blythedale Children's School in Valhalla, NY. The additional books gave the children more reading choices for their particular reading level. She also volunteered her time assisting the teachers with the children's reading groups, providing more individualized attention and instruction. During each week of the summer session, Emily created coloring books and puzzle worksheets to coordinate with that week's theme. This project gave the children an opportunity to embrace their love for reading. 

Elizabeth Browne (Troop 50597) - The Rider's Closet

Elizabeth's Silver project was to raise awareness for The Rider's Closet, a non-profit organization which collects new or gently used riding apparel and equipment to be distributed to riders, pony clubs and therapeutic riding centers. To achieve this goal, Elizabeth scripted, filmed, edited and produced an educational DVD outlining the goals and mission of The Rider’s Closet which she distributed to area barns. She also distributed collection bins throughout the area barns, accumulating many donations for The Rider’s Closet. 

Laura Goodman (Troop 50597) - Women's Empowerment in the Bible

Laura’s Silver project was on Women's Empowerment in the Bible. As part of her teaching a sixth grade class focusing on the Old Testament, she wrote a play about the Book of Esther. Queen Esther, in particular, is an account of a young woman who single- handedly saved her entire race from annihilation. Laura's class relationship between art, dance and music. As part of the program, each student made a drum, tambourine and a maraca. Donations of recorders were collected and each student received a recorder at the end of the summer. Melissa also developed an inspirational video, featuring interviews with 20 young musicians, to educate parents about the benefits of playing a musical instrument. Her video was showcased at the End-Of- Summer Ceremony for over 200 parents, children and educators. Melissa's video remains at the Carver Center for future use. It has been shared with Norwalk and Ridgefield Elementary schools and is being used to help foster a love for music in children. Her program has been featured in the Ridgefield Press, the GS December Pathway newsletter as the Take Action Story and most recently the 100 Year Anniversary Celebration. 

Kiran Singh-Smith (Troop 50597)

Kiran combined her interest in environmental issues and her interest in music for her Silver project,“A Healthier Workplace for Patients and Staff,” based at Stamford Hospital. This project consisted of two different parts. First, Kiran worked with the hospital’s Green Committee, researching and developing brochures about hospital based recycling efforts. Second, Kiran organized and performed a concert for patients and staff of the cancer wing of the hospital. The concert received positive feedback and Kiran has been asked to organize another concert in the near future. 

Madeline Holzhauer (Troop 50165)

Being passionate about cheerleading since 2nd grade, Madeline decided to work with the youth cheerleaders in the Fairfield County Football and Cheer through her Gold Award. She worked with the league's board to plan and enhance the 2011 Cheerleading Exhibition as well as working with the girls to teach them about nutrition and self confidence. Madeline worked with the VP of Cheer in Ridgefield, Mrs. Birmingham, to plan and coordinate the Exhibition throughout the fall of 2011. Madeline added aspects to the Cheer Exhibition to give it a more competition-like feel by adding judging to the event. However, to have the girls all feel accomplished she created Spirit Awards, so instead of placements the girls won awards such as “Most Spirited Squad”. Madeline also planned on selling more nutritional snacks at concession and rewarding the squad who bought the most healthy snacks. Additionally, during the season she held nutritional workshops for the squads in Ridgefield, and held a self confidence workshop for the cheerleaders entering either the high school or middle school, or who are currently in middle school. By late October, Madeline had everything in place for the event, and had already held all her workshops, however, the October snowstorm forced her to cancel the event. Despite her best efforts to reschedule the event, it didn't happen on as  big of a scale as she had hoped. The girls still got their Spirit Awards and learned a lot about nutrition.