Congratulations to the Girl Scouts who have made this outstanding achievement during the 2008-2009 Membership Year.

Amberlea Kirby
Amberlea Kirby, of Victoria, taught a bicycle safety course to children in conjunction with the Kiwanis Club of Victoria’s bicycle fund raiser on March 21, 2009.  Through educational materials, activities including games and races, and presentations by the fire department, police department, and Red Cross, Kirby helped children to understand how to bicycle safely.

Ashley Hawes
Ashley Hawes, of Port Aransas, conducted a free 5-day workshop on native plants and wetlands for children ages 6-10.  The workshop activities included hands-on lessons on identifying and potting plants, learning about wetlands, and making art projects.  Kids learned to understand their environment and how to take care of it, and had fun by Ashley’s leadership. 

Caitlin Pyle
Caitlin Pyle, of Port Aransas, started a club in her high school called the Planeteers who collaborated with Allied Waste to create a recycling program in the school with bins created by the welding class.  In the year of implementation, the amount of materials from the school going to recycling doubled.

Hanna Moore
Hanna Moore, of Victoria, became a certified American Red Cross babysitting instructor and taught classes at Boys & Girls Clubs, a housing complex, a school, and other locations where she could reach at-risk girls who are frequently left in charge of younger siblings.  Moore raised the funds to offer the classes free of charge, and trained fifty-nine girls how to properly care for children. 

Hannah Peterson
Hannah Peterson, of Kingsville, organized “Recycle Kingsville Day” in May 2009.  Peterson worked with the mayor to get a proclamation of Recycle Kingsville Day.  Approximately 300 people came to the event at the Kingsville Recycling Center for free games, crafts, and lots of information about recycling and promoted the recycling center within the community.

 Joanna Schiefelbein
oanna Schiefelbein, of Mission, addresses the lack of an adequate, safe environment for kids to play at St. George-The Great Martyr Orthodox Church during their bi-monthly food pantry.  Joanna researched playgrounds, fundraised and purchased one.  She coordinated the construction of the playground on the church property so that kids now have a safe place to play.

Margaret Bice
Margaret Bice, of Brownsvile, addressed a need of clean water at the Centro Cristiano Las Palmas church on the outskirts of Matamoros, Mexico.  Bice researched water filtration methods, and then raised the money necessary to install a double-filtration system on the water line leading to the church.  The new water filtration system provides clean water to the church and its members.

Rachel Gohike
Rachel Gohike, of Victoria, provided the landscaping for the Christ’s Kitchen that was required for its opening to the community.  She researched and installed xeriscaping, dug a drainage ditch, laid sod, created two herb gardens, and installed bicycle racks to create an aesthetic and functional layout for the outside of the building.

Tess Yarbrough
Tess Yarbrough, of Victoria, conducted a 4-day theater camp.  The camp taught the children about acting and also covered important issues of confidence and creativity.  Over the course of the camp, the children wrote their own skits, and at the end of the camp, they performed for their parents and community members.