Three Girl Scouts in Greenwich earn Gold Award for ‘taking action’ through community projects

To earn her Gold Award, Greenwich Academy junior Mary Kate Blum launched a support group with Abilis, a Greenwich-based nonprofit that supports people with developmental disabilities, for kids ages 9 to 14 with disabled siblings.

The “sibshop” has been running for a year-and-a-half, and Blum told Greenwich Time that she hopes her project extends well beyond the time she is able to help lead the group.

Her older sister was diagnosed with autism at a young age, and Blum said she struggled to find people to relate to some of the feelings she had growing up.

“I knew from personal experience that this was a cause that was super-important to me. And seeing these kids and hearing their personal stories, I can really relate to them,” she said. “It helps me so much because I get to live this experience with them.”

Blum didn’t know her sister had autism until years after the diagnosis when she questioned household dynamics. She said the sibshop gives kids the tools they need to understand.

“The good thing about this group is it brings together kids who might not necessarily know each other, but they have this similar similarity and this connection to each other, and the bond they have is so strong because of this connection,” she said.

Blum has been a leader on the Youth Board at Abilis for two years and approached the CEO with her idea when she brainstormed the project.

“Since I already knew how Abilis works and I already knew what they stood for, that made them a really easy partner to pick because I already knew what goals they had and I knew what kind of programs they had in place already,” she said.

She connected with Abilis case manager and instructor Maddy Schulte, who became the co-facilitator for the sibshop.

Blum has held leadership positions, but she said creating the sibshop was new and exciting.

“This was the first time I was really making a big difference and actually getting to orchestrate an actual program though — that is actually still running today,” she said.

Mikaela Browning

Mikaela Browning, a senior at Greenwich High School, gave three presentations to parents at local elementary and middle schools about the possible dangers of social media and included tips on encouraging healthy social media habits for kids.

Browning has avoided social media throughout her youth, and she was immediately drawn to the topic when brainstorming her Gold Award project, she told Greenwich Time.

“There are a lot of people like my friends who have tried to convince me to get (a social media account) every day almost,” she said. “But in my research, just seeing all of the terrible statistics and stories of different people, definitely strengthened my conviction.”

Studies have linked social media use to negative mental health outcomes, Browning said, citing Netflix’s popular documentary “The Social Dilemma.”

Through creating the project, she also learned to manage procrastination tendencies and gained public speaking experience.

“That project for me was kind of a test of if I could really get things done when I needed to, which I’ve always been a little worried about, but I was really happy with what I was able to do,” Browning said.

She submitted her project proposal in August and completed her work in October. A self-labeled procrastinator, Browning said she set deadlines for herself along the way.

The parent presentations were virtual, but she created physical pamphlets for the school and made a website for families to revisit.

Gold Award projects involve a team, but Browning was able to complete hers with a smaller group. She attributes her success to her troop leader Kim Sushon.

Sushon wasn’t the original troop leader when the girls joined scouts as students at Old Greenwich School. But as they matured and the group changed, Sushon stepped up, Browning said.

“She has just been absolutely amazing, and she has been the one to push us whenever we want to do projects, and she practically lays opportunities at our feet,” Browning said.

She said some Girl Scouts leave when they become teens and feel disconnected. But Troop 50540 takes trips every year and has continued its work in community service throughout high school. Nine high school seniors graduated from the troop during the Greenwich service unit ceremony.

Haven Sushon

Greenwich High School senior Haven Sushon, whose mom leads Troop 50540, merged her passion for art with a desire to bring more voters to the polls in her Gold Award project.

“I hit countless roadblocks during the project and each of them served as a way to assess whether or not I felt like I could keep going. And luckily, I was able to make a humbling decision to keep going,” she said. “But there were some times during a project like this where you really have to just grit your teeth and keep going.”

Sushon designed posters to hang at school that advocated for eligible voters to register. Although she assured the school the message was nonpartisan, hanging a political poster gave administrators pause.

“People get very nervous when you bring up politics, especially in a public education environment; you have to walk on a lot of eggshells,” she said.

A civics teacher excitedly welcomed the posters into her classroom, decorated with political cartoons as well.

One poster acknowledges the accommodations disabled citizens request to be able to vote. Sushon said her message is that if blind people go through a lengthier process to register and vote, why isn’t the voter turnout higher?

One challenge in her project was that Sushon said she faced high costs when pricing out printing her posters. She wanted a sturdy poster, so she could only afford three large prints in her budget.

The League of Women Voters gave her guidance during the project, which also included a survey on voting attitudes.

“I learned that it’s pretty universal, but there are a lot of people who just aren’t happy with the system or the way the system is being used, for one reason or another,” Sushon said. “No matter what part of the political spectrum you’re on, everyone can agree that they’re unhappy.”

She said she was disappointed the project had such a somber tone from the data but was proud of the work she presented.