Contributor: Jenny Holkan, Girl Scout Troop Leader/Allies Volunteer & Scout Troop #1990
In mid-September, Austin Allies received a call from one of our long-time volunteers, Jenny Holkan. Jenny is the leader of Girl Scout Troop #1990 whose scouts are in pursuit of their Bronze Award. In order to complete their award, they came up with a fabulous idea - to create a Kindness Rock Garden and share it with a local organization! In order to complete their desired rock garden, phase two of their Bronze Award process, they needed our volunteers' help to paint and decorate rocks. In the end, over 250 decorated rocks from 30 families and Girl Scout Troops were placed in a rock garden at the Town Lake YMCA. A special thank you to Girl Scout Troop #1990 for including Austin Allies in such a fantastic activity and proving that Kindness Rocks!
We asked Jenny and Girl Scout Troop #1990 about their experience with the Bronze Award and the Kindness Rock Garden:
Our Girl Scout troop started working on our Bronze Award project when we were still in 5th grade, right around the same time that schools closed in the spring and everyone had to stay at home.
We wanted to do something that would bring happiness to our community and spread kindness, so we thought, “What could we do that would help kids, and have a lasting impact?”
In order to earn a Girl Scout Bronze Award, there is a requirement that each girl has to do at least 20 hours of work. We had meetings on zoom and talked about different ideas, and finally voted on what we wanted to do - writing a "Boredom Busters" activity/puzzles/recipe book was our first choice, and making a painted rock garden was a close second. So we decided to do both!
We wanted to make a book that would entertain kids who were stuck at home and bored, just like us. We worked together to contribute recipes, puzzles, crafts, and stories, and then we had a design contest for the book's cover. We used the money that our troop had earned from selling cookies to have 250 copies of our book printed, so we can donate them to various children's organizations, foster care groups, and charities.
For the Kindness Rock Garden, we started out by painting our own rocks at home. Each girl painted about 3-10 rocks each. We also partnered with and had tons of help from a non-profit organization called Austin Allies. Their volunteers, along with other local Girl Scout troops, helped donate over 250 beautiful rocks! Austin Allies also helped us find a great location to install the rock garden - The Town Lake YMCA. We had a lot of fun placing the colorful rocks all over the entry pathway and garden area of the YMCA.
Putting the rock garden together was a fun and rewarding part of the journey. It was nice to finally see our hard work on display and people already enjoying the garden as they walked by. We hope it will continue to bring smiles to people everyday!
- Daphne, Eesha, Elena, Izzy, Julia, Libby, Pragya, Sara, Sophia, and Zoya
