Allison Hand, junior, achieved the highest ranking award in girl scouts, the Gold Award. Nationally recognized, few scouts receive this award, less than five percent according to the official Girl Scout website. Hand, a 12 year scout, earned it by renovating a room in the Greenspoint office at CPS (child protective services) facility, making it much nicer and more comfortable for the kids and teens who visit often.

This award challenges a scout to change the world for the better, such as solving a community problem and helping people. There are seven steps to achieving the gold award: Identify an issue, investigate it thoroughly, get help and build a team, create a plan, present the plan and gather feedback, take action, and inspire. Thus, this award helps one to learn the importance of making plans to help you achieve your goals.

“We were already organizing their warehouse getting things ready for back to school. We were just talking to them about how else we could help them and they talked about these rooms. They were really dull and boring, with beige paint and old furniture. We got donations of furniture and paint and we redecorated these rooms.”

She visited the building and took a tour of the place. Then she decided how she wanted to redesign it. Hand was able to lead a group of volunteers in to help her clean and redecorate, even recruiting the help of a professional designer who gave her insight on how to make the room look professional and how to get the design approved by the CPS staff. However, Hand and her team of volunteers had some challenges to overcome when trying to put together the design of the room.

“Everything we got was donated, it wasn’t all matching. We had to kind of just make everything work. I had some of my friends help me. It was fun to have them there, but we did a little more talking than working.”

Hand has volunteered with CPS for several years, kindling her passion for helping them to improve the environment of the work place.

She said the most important skill that she has learned through this project is time management. She is also very happy that she has made a positive impact on the lives of kids and teenagers who may be going through a tough time. Hand illustrates an excellent example of how hard work and determination can achieve something great and benefit the lives of others.

“The best part of the project was knowing that we were really making people happy by just a coat of paint. We were standing in the room before we put all the furniture in and it felt so much better than just the beige walls that it used to be.”