Jan. 1, 1970
Four Alexandria Girl Scouts earn Silver Award for community service projects
Four eighth-graders from Alexandria Country Day School have earned the Silver Award, the highest honor available to Cadette Girl Scouts, for community service projects addressing Alzheimer’s disease awareness and foster care support.
Evelyn Bryan, Ellie Harris, Abby Michel and Taylor Reynolds were recognized by the Girl Scouts of the Nation’s Capital for achieving the distinction earned by fewer than 10% of all Cadettes.
Harris received her Silver Award for organizing a powder puff football game designed to educate teenagers and the community about Alzheimer’s disease and its impact on families.
“It was a lot of work to put the elements of the game together — to find interested girls to participate, recruit coaches, promote the event, and make sure it was a fun-filled, educational day for everyone who came,” Harris said.
To ensure the project’s long-term impact, Harris created a 40-page guide for other teens planning community events, including key information about Alzheimer’s disease.
“It feels great to know I’m helping other teens who may have a grandparent or loved one with Alzheimer’s disease,” she said. “Hopefully being educated about the disease and how to connect with impacted family members will make other teens feel less alone.”
Bryan, Michel and Reynolds collaborated on a project to support children in foster care by providing them with personal belongings. The trio was inspired by a speaker who visited their school in sixth grade.
“We had a speaker come to our school in 6th grade who talked about the way not having belongings of their own makes kids in care feel,” Reynolds said. “That really stuck with us — it’s hard to imagine being away from your family and support system and only having a trash bag to take from house to house.”
The students partnered with Comfort Cases, a nonprofit organization, to learn about the needs of children in foster care before soliciting donations to assemble care kits.
“The Alexandria community was very generous to our project,” Michel said. “We had huge piles of donations to sort through, and wanted to be sure every kit was complete. It was important to us that we fill each bag with things that would feel thoughtfully selected to the recipient.”
Like Harris, the trio created educational materials to help sustain their project’s impact, producing a how-to brochure for other teens interested in supporting foster children.
“Getting to visit Comfort Cases and hear from people who had been in foster care first-hand was powerful,” Bryan said. “I hope our project will inspire other teens and adults to help support kids who don’t have all of the love and support we do. Everyone deserves to feel worthy.”
Back to Press