By Makenzie Atkins
The highest award a Cadette-level Girl Scout can earn and the second highest award over the entire Girl Scout organization is the Silver Award. A local Girl Scout, Sierra Farrell, who is only 11 years old, worked with the North Florida Wildlife Center in order to create awareness about human impact on wildlife to earn this amazing award.
Farrell titled her project ‘Wildlife Education Sensation’ and worked with the North Florida Wildlife Center in Lamont to create an eight-page booklet for kids with games and puzzles to enhance what they would be learning when they visit the center.
On top of this, Farrell also had a free national event for kids to submit original art pieces featuring wild animals along with an educational poster featuring the animal’s category on the conservation/extinction scale, threats to the animal and what humans can do to help. Kids from around the country submitted pieces and were featured on Farrell’s Wildlife Education Sensation Facebook page.
On her Facebook page, Farrell shares what she has learned by posting tips to help families live more sustainably and to help us to be aware of the impact we have on wildlife and endangered species so we can help make a difference.
“I learned a lot of leadership skills like project management and how to approach organizations in my community,” said Farrell, “and a project I thought was impossible in the beginning turned out to be possible when I kept at it.”
The Silver Award is the highest award in the Cadette level for girls in grades seven through eight. Only about 10 percent of Girl Scouts achieve the Silver Award, and the project is a big undertaking. First, the girls must complete the Cadette Leadership Journey, which is an extended engagement with a topic for the Take Action project to make the world a better place.
After this, the Girl Scout must complete at least 50 project hours engaging with organizations in order to identify a problem or need in the community and then find the cause and a lasting solution. The Girl Scout then implements that solution to create a sustainable change while educating others and inspiring them to be a part of the change.
After completing the project, Farrell found that, even as a kid, she truly can make a difference in her community.
