My community

I have been a girl scout since kindergarten, with the same troop, Troop 443, that originated from Nuuanu Elementary School.  In hindsight, the girl scout program was the one steady, common denominator between my friends and I.  Once we got to middle school, we went in a number of different schools, but our troop stayed as strong as ever.  High school put us in new personal paths once again, but we stayed together as a troop, meeting every other Friday in our old elementary school cafeteria.  

Then, last year, we suffered an unimaginable loss when one of our founding den mothers, Wynette Sheehan, passed away from cancer.  None of us came out of this experience unchanged.  I would like to think that having our support group for Wynette's daughter, Abby (second girl scout from the right) was of paramount help.  I would like to think that everything I will do in my future will be with the goal to honor Wynette's legacy.

For my Bronze Award Project, I chose to beautify the main entrance to my middle school.  There was an old concrete pad that once served as a flag pole mound, but after years of decay, the flag poles rusted and broke off and the bricks were braking off and rolling down the hill.  Graffiti covered what was left of the flag mound.  This eyesore bothered me long before I started middle school, as we would drive by the school entrance twice daily, going to my preschool and elementary school. 

I contacted our local Home Depot and City Mill and showed them my plans and drawings for beautifying the school entrance and this section of Prospect Street.  City Mill donated bags of soil to create a terraced planter area.  Home Depot donated four large outdoor urns to plant Sansevieria plants.  With my girl scout cookie sale funds, I purchased plants, concrete stain, stone wall tile and thinset.  I set aside a weekend to make the improvements, but--to my surprise--most of my girl scout troop sisters showed up to give a helping hand, so we were able to do everything in just one day.

It has been 7 years since I rejuvenated the school's entrance, and every time I drive by, I look at the planter garden, and I feel happy, happy, happy!

After I developed my headlice solution and won the State ISEF Science Fair, teachers approached me for bottles of my product.  They would sheepishly tell me that in their district headlice was a major problem.  The truth is, headlice do not discriminate, they will thrive on any child's scalp.  However, lice do tend to be much more prevalent in socio-economically depressed neighborhoods.  I saw this through my jiujitsu school, where children would often have to cut their hair, due to headlice infestations.  

I started giving away my product a few bottles at time.  As more and more teachers found out about this inexpensive yet safe and effective solution, schools started requesting it.  Today, I supply six schools with my products at no charge.  I would not have been able to pay for the cost of the supplies and ingredients, had it not been for two national grants I was able to win: a $5,000 grant from the US Army Educational Program (eCybermission STEM competition), and a $3,500 grant from the University of Delaware (Diamond Challenge international competition 3rd place prize).   These two grants allow me to help those neighborhoods that need this help the most.