Junior Troop 19 Bronze Project 2015-2016
The Bronze Award is the highest award that a Junior Girl Scout can receive. After some discussion, our troop decided to focus our project on refugees. To learn about refugees in Turkey, we interviewed Danijela Popovic. She works with the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (known as UNHCR) and the non-Syrian refugees. She taught us what refugees are, where some of them are from, and what they need. Refugees are people from other countries that fled from wars or other difficulties. Mrs. Popovic discussed with us the different needs of the refugees and left it to us to decide how we wanted to help.
In some people’s opinion, they think that refugees look different from us. Really refugees look as normal as us. Just because they left their homes in another country and they don’t have a home now, doesn’t mean we have to treat them with any less respect. They are people just like us. In fact they deserve more respect because of what they have been through.
After this meeting, we decided to collect non-perishable snacks and drinks for the refugees that come to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) and have missed lunch. Sometimes they never have any food for the whole day, and we thought that we could provide at least a snack for those that missed the lunch delivery. Danijela was a big help for completing our Bronze Project and helping us decide exactly what we were going to do and teaching us more about refugees in Turkey. Thank you, Danijela!
Meeting with Dr. Brodie, Vice Principal of our school
In order to collect the food, we needed to ask permission to have a donation box at the school. When we all gathered in Dr. Brodie’s office that day, I’m sure we all felt excited, curious, and cagey. Just for the record, I’m pretty sure there was more than a little bit of fear. As we filed in, Dr. Brodie greeted us warmly. We were sure that Dr. Brodie would agree to our plan. A few of us sat down and stated the facts: why, who, what, and where. We planned to put a box in a hall near the lost and found locker. We would have a sign stating that we needed food for the refugees since they don’t have 15/16 of what we do. Dr. Brodie generally agreed except for one thing. She needed to know if it was in the middle of the hall since the fire Marshall had said “all halls must be clear enough for three people across to walk in case of a fire.” We assured her that all halls were clear, even with our big box. She finally agreed to the entire plan.
Meeting with the Commissary Manager
Junior Girl Scout Troop 19 decided to collect food for the refugees in Turkey and we thought another great location would be our local grocery store, called the Commissary. A few girls in the troop were picked to talk to the commissary manager at the Balgat base to ask for permission to put a box at the Commissary. We took a walk over to the Balgat Commissary and stopped by the manager’s office for a quick chat:
Manager: Hello, what can I do for your today, ladies? Mrs. Basom (one of our Girl Scout leaders): We would like to discuss putting a box outside the commissary for food donations for the refugees since many people shop here on the weekends.
Manager: That sounds wonderful and kind of you ladies. In fact others have asked to put donation boxes up near here. I would love to have a donation box for refugees here, as long as you come clear it out so piles of food don’t start pouring out of the box.
Mrs. Basom: Of course, the leaders and possibly some of the girls could come help clear out the box and donate the food to the refugees.
Isabelle, Maren, Alexis: That would be great, thank you!
Mrs. Basom: Thank you, sir.
Isabelle, Marne, Alexis, Mrs. Basom: Thank you! Goodbye!
I hope after hearing about this, people will continue to donate! Thank you from Troop 19.
5k for Refugees:
Last December we participated in a 5k for refugees. Everyone had to run 8.75 laps around the course and most members of the community were involved. To keep people inspired, our Junior Girl Scout Troop made motivational posters to put around the course. Products that were made by the refugees were sold and all the money made went to the refugees.
Also snacks were given out. With thanks to the 5k committee, almost $18000 was raised and the money went to Care International, an organization that helps many refugees. We were happy to participate in the 5k as part of our Take Action Project.
The Food Drive:
The main goal of our Bronze Project was to collect food for the refugees. We came up with the idea to do food because the refugees don’t need toys and we thought that food was the most helpful. To reach this goal, we set a basket at the commissary, the BX, and at the school to collect the food. Our first donation site was at the Breakfast with Santa event. We volunteered at this event by helping little kids make crafts. We put a box out and we collected our first donations!
In order to advertise, we used many ways, such as decorating our donation boxes, putting it in the Trojan Tribune and the Ankara Scene. We also asked Dr. Brodie to make a morning announcement about collecting donations. In addition, we also gave Marguerita dental supplies from an American dentist from Worthington Hills Dental in Worthington, Ohio.
At the end of several months, we delivered all of our food that we collected to Marguerita who would give out the food as needed to the refugees who came in to the UNHCR for appointments.
Finally we recorded our journey in this blog that the Junior Troop from last year began. You are now reading our blog about our journey! We hope that we have done good deeds for the refugees and that we have inspired others to be Agents of Change in themselves, their community, and their world.
