Community Corner

Troop Fills Joy Jars, Sponsors Sea Lion, Makes Birthday Kits

Nine Junior Girl Scouts earn Bronze Awards after two years of community service projects.

After two years of community service projects, the nine girls who make up Portola Hills Junior Girl Scout Troop 608 have earned their Bronze Awards.

From stuffing JoyJars to sponsoring a recently rescued sea lion, the girls' projects earned them the highest level award a Junior Girl Scout can get.

They earned this award by helping out , the Jessie Rees Foundation and the Pacific Marine Mammal Center.

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Troop 608 includes 9 girls: Elena Aquilanti, Emily Cody, Emily Glick, Emma Gunder, Sarah Loranger, Tara Quinn, Natalie Savard, Natalie Schreiber and Avery Tescher.

During their fifth-grade year as Junior Girl Scouts, the girls hosted a birthday party for Daisy Scouts and shared information they had learned about different role models in the community and stereotypes by performing a skit they had written. They also helped the girls create cards that were sent to children who were sick via MakeaChildSmile.org.  

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The troop also collected cake mixes and frosting for the food pantry at . They put the birthday treats in bags with balloons and gifted more than 30 of the birthday kits to the Lake Forest nonprofit.  distributed the kits to needy families with a birthday coming up.

The Girl Scouts also helped sort and shelve food donations at the food pantry.  

Another aspect of their award was earned helping the . The girls were all touched by Jessie Rees' story and wanted to help her foundation.

During her fight she founded the Jessie Rees Foundation and provided JoyJars—jars stuffed with toys and other treats—to children with cancer.

To collect toys for the jars, Troop 608 held a toy drive at .

They passed out flyers and put collection bags in every classroom. After collecting the toys, they were sorted and delivered to the Jessie Rees Foundation. Troop 608 collected more than 25 grocery bags filled with toys and spent an afternoon stuffing them into JoyJars.

The troop also spent $150 of their cookie earnings to sponsor a sea lion at the Pacific Marine Mammal Center in Laguna Beach.

Allan, a recently rescued sea lion that the troop sponsored, is on track to be released this summer. The troop plans to attend his release.

During the troop's work toward its Bronze Award, the girls gained the leadership and planning skills required to follow through with a project that makes a difference in their world, said Lisa Quinn, troop leader. Quinn and Sandy Schreiber head the nine-girl troop.


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