June 22, 2006

Local senior girl scouts go for the gold

Troop 701 helps Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley aid local homeowners

Nine girls from Girl Scout Senior Troop 701 recently joined other volunteers working with Rebuilding Together Silicon Valley to help the community.

Troop 701 works hard to give back to the community. Pictured are (back row, left to right) Lauren Anderson, Kelsey Motekaitis, Erin Lane, Lauren Traina, Jordan O’Halloran, Lauren Drygas and parent Vicki Traina; (front row, left to right) Lisa Trimberger, Neeyati Patel, Lynn Wilson and Troop Leader Jennifer Moyen-Logan.

Troop member Lauren Traina coordinated the effort with RTSV. The troop spent the day on April 29, working on a Cupertino home in serious need of extensive repairs. This is the third year the girls have joined forces with corporate and community volunteers to repair a home or a community building.

This year’s assignment was to repair and refurbish a home built in 1959 and purchased 24 years ago by two sisters, ages 59 and 60, who are now both disabled. All of the homeowners’ savings and most of their income had gone to medical bills not covered by insurance. The home was in need of extensive cleaning and painting and a tree needed to be removed from the backyard.

The girls spent over eight hours using their cleaning and painting skills, learned in the past two years of volunteering, to make the house a brighter and more livable space for the sisters. Volunteer organizers for the day raved about the girls’ spirit and efficiency; one volunteer told them that their enthusiasm kept him motivated as he faced challenges during the day.

“I wanted to extend RTSV's gratitude to your hardworking troop of girls that helped out in Cupertino. Their work ethic and stamina was great, and I heard compliments back from the project leaders about the work they did. We would love to have them back anytime,” Rebuilding Together Program Associate Kevin Heuer wrote in an e-mail.

Troop 701 is a group of 15 Almaden Valley high school juniors (plus a member from the Cambrian area) that attend five different high schools. They are led by Troop Leader Jennifer Moyen-Logan. This highly dedicated group of girls is focused on earning their Gold Award, the highest level of achievement in Girl Scouting, similar to the Boy Scout’s Eagle Scout level. The girls have completed their badge work for their Gold Award and many of the girls are in progress on their Gold Award projects. In addition to volunteering at Rebuilding Together, the girls have planned, prepared and served two homeless shelter dinners, as well as a food drive for InVision.

To top it all off the girls have also been busy planning and fundraising for an exciting trip to Italy in July to celebrate their hard work and troop spirit.