Published October 7, 2020
By DAN TOMASELLO
LYNNFIELD — Hard work pays off.
Girl Scout Troop 69177 was recently presented with its Bronze Award after completing its Sunshine for Seniors project. The troop includes sixth-graders Layla Allen, Talia Blue, Shana Butter, Abby Harris, Katie McGuinness, Ella Price and Lindsay Squadrito.
As part of the project, Troop 69177 decided to partner with Sunrise Assisted Living in order to bring smiles to some of the residents who live at the facility. Katie said each troop member came up with two ideas for the project, and the troop selected Abby’s proposal.
“Abby told us that she had noticed that people in nursing homes and assisted living facilities get lonely,” said Katie.
After reaching out to Sunrise officials to discuss potential ideas for the project, Abby said Troop 69177 decided to make scrapbooks for senior citizens living at the facility. Ella said each troop member interviewed their buddies, where the girls asked them to discuss a pre-selected topic such as families and careers.
“We took notes to review later on for our scrapbooks,” said Ella.
Talia and Layla’s buddy was Fran Brady, who has two sons and four grandchildren.
“Growing up, Fran was a straight A student and loved math,” said Talia.
Layla added that Fran “worked as a data collector for an insurance company for 15 years.”
“Her husband was a firefighter,” said Layla.
Ella and Katie’s buddy was U.S. Air Force veteran Sal Pomer.
“Sal grew up in eastern Massachusetts as the third oldest of nine children,” said Ella. “He went to aircraft mechanic school and joined the U.S. Air Force at the age of 18, and was a bomber and tail-gunner during World War II and the Korean War. He spent 13 years in the Air Force.”
After being discharged from the Air Force, Katie said Pomer spent the next 38 years working for Boston’s Highway Department.
“He excels at math and loves reading mysteries, doing puzzles and watching ‘NCIS,’” said Katie. “He also loves dogs and Italian food. Sal is an amazing person with a great sense of humor. We love being his buddies.”
Shana became close friends with a woman named Rose Leone.
“Rose just celebrated her 94th birthday,” said Shana. “As we got to know each other, we came closer. We both love our families and care deeply about our religion. She grew up in Boston and has three kids. She loves cats, especially her cat Daisy May. Her husband was in the Army and met her relatives when he was stationed in Italy. We both love books.”
Abby said her buddy Louise is the mother of seven children.
“She loves to travel and has been all over the world,” said Abby. “Some of the places she has been to are Hawaii, New Zealand, Greece, Bermuda and China. In fact, she was one of the first visitors after the border reopened. Her most recent trip was to Alaska, where they went on a cruise. She has seven children: Eric, Linda, Sandra, Stephani, Claudia and the twins, David and Michael. She knew her spouse, Weston, through family and they met at the age of 12. One thing that we have in common is that we both love Harry Potter.”
Lindsay became good friends with a man named Ed Myskowski.
“He loves art, particularly sculpting rock,” said Lindsay. “Ed loves books and most kinds of music, especially jazz. Ed is a very friendly person who is very easy to get along with. He was an engineer before he retired. Ed loves to be outside and watch birds. The dog, Mia, at Sunrise and Ed are friends because Mia knows that Ed always gives her treats. I love being Ed’s buddy.”
In addition to creating scrapbooks for the Sunrise residents, Abby said the troop members also played trivia with the residents.
“Each month had a different theme,” said Abby.
Lindsay noted that the trivia competitions “got a little bit competitive.”
“A lot of the residents are friends, and they kept saying to each other, ‘I am going to beat you,’” said Lindsay. “It was very funny.”
Abby said she and her fellow troop members had a blast while getting to know the seniors. She really enjoyed learning about Louise’s children.
“She had a lot of funny stories to tell,” said Abby.
Ella said her favorite part of the Sunshine for Seniors project was having the troop make their new friends “happy and smile.”
“It was really interesting to learn about what their lives were like when they were our age,” Ella added. “It was really impressive. (Our) buddy kept asking us about computers and where can he get one. They were really interested in learning about our lives.”
Layla agreed.
“It was a lot of fun getting to know the buddies,” said Layla.
Lindsay said she “enjoyed making the scrapbooks and showing them to the residents.”
“It was a lot of fun watching the residents look through the scrapbooks because they were very happy and thankful for all of that was done,” said Lindsay.
Talia enjoyed making new friends with the Sunrise residents.
“I really like meeting new people,” said Talia.
Lindsay also noted the project allowed the troop to “brighten up older adults’ lives with company, conversation, games and fun.”
Girl Scout Troop 69177 co-leader Alison Squadrito noted that the troop kept in touch with the residents after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the senior living facility to stop having visitors in January.
“Everybody stayed in touch,” said Alison.
Shana said she called Rose after the pandemic started in order to check in on her.
“We had a really nice conversation,” said Shana.
Alison noted that, “The girls felt strongly that they wanted to work toward earning a Bronze Award as a troop.”
“As we reviewed the requirements with them, we all recognized that the work they were doing on this project was at the level of a Bronze Award,” said Alison. “I called the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts Council to ask them if there was a way that we could submit this project for consideration for a Bronze Award, even though we hadn’t followed the steps of the process that the Girl Scouts have outlined. The Girl Scouts asked us to expand our project by finding a way to share it with others and agreed that, if we did that, it was worthy of a Bronze Award. Ultimately, we had to modify our initial plan to discuss the project with others in person and posted our slides on social media instead. We have offered to help any group who would like to take on a similar project by sharing our topics of conversation and interview questions and helping them along the way.”
Girl Scout Troop 69177 co-leader Kathryn Price said, “The Bronze Award is the highest honor Girl Scouts can receive at this level.”
“We are very proud of them,” said Kathryn. “It is reflective of the people that they are. They are really warm and caring people. I think all of those attributes along with how conscientious they are and dedicated they are is what made this special. We feel very lucky having these girls in this troop, and having them earn this award is a testament to the qualities that they have.”
Lindsay said it feels great the troop was given a Bronze Award
“It feels like all of our hard work paid off,” said Lindsay. “We didn’t intend for this to be a Bronze Award. After my mom called and told them about all of the work that we did, they realized it was enough work to qualify for a Bronze Award. When we found we were going to receive our Bronze Award, I almost cried because we put a lot of work into this and this is bigger than a Take Action project. We will definitely have these memories for the rest of our lives.”