Year-Long Project Lets Wilton Girl Scout Troop Brighten the Day for Hospitalized Kids

Wilton Girl Scout Troop 50877, pictured above, left to right:  Hannah Pettibone, Andress Pettibone (co-leader), Mackenzie Palmer, Cecilia Aversano, Emily Johnson, Kathleen Lamanna, Maggie Palma, Drew Clune, Kathryn Johnson (co-leader), and Ella Donovan.

The fifth grade girls of Girl Scout Troop 50877 may have celebrated their last day at Cider Mill School on Tuesday, but that wasn’t the main highlight of the day for them. That afternoon they piled into a caravan of cars with some moms and headed to Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital to complete a year-long project meant to bring some joy and happiness into the lives of children who are long-term pediatric patients at the hospital.

The girls came up with the idea of delivering 100 gift bags to pediatric patients back in October 2014 as a way to earn their Bronze Award, the highest award a Junior Girl Scout can achieve. The girls started thinking about people who might need help and they instantly decided on kids in the hospital. The girls in the troop wanted to spread kindness and compassion to kids who spend most of their time fighting illnesses. They wanted the patients to feel happy and know that there were other children who were thinking about them and wishing them well.

The project required that they plan, fundraise for supplies and budget. They strategized some fundraising ideas and concepts for what to include in the gift bags.

Knowing there’d likely be other Wilton children who would want to help support the project, the girls came up with a plan to get their school involved. They met with Cider Mill principal, Dr. Jennifer Mitchell, and strategized a way to make their awareness campaign and fundraiser coincide with Cider Mill School Spirit Day on April 10. They worked for several months making rainbow loom bracelets in the colors of the four Cider Mill houses as well as in Wilton blue-and-white. In the two days leading up to spirit day, they sold the bracelets in the Cider Mill cafeteria and raised over $300!

Their improvised store gave the girl scouts a venue where they could talk to the student body about their project and their campaign to spread kindness and compassion not only to the patients in the hospital, but to each and every student. As part of their efforts, they enlisted the help of their fellow students to make cards for the patients letting them know that a Cider Mill student was thinking about them. All the kids were very excited to show their school spirit by wearing the bracelets and also eager to help support such a worthy cause.

The girls raised the rest of the money by holding a bake sale during Wilton soccer games, asking for donations from local businesses and, of course, by selling lots of Girl Scout cookies!

Once the girls met their fundraising goals, they started preparing the gift bags. They drew a picture and positive sentiment on each of the 100 bags and tied each with a gift tag to let the recipient know their special gift was prepared by Girl Scout Troop 50877.

One day last month, the girls met up after school to purchase the items from a wish list sent to them by Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital. It was quite a task buying gifts for 100 children ages 4-18, both boys and girls. The girls divided and conquered, splitting up into smaller groups and divvying up the purchasing by age group and gender, all while staying within budget for each child.

Ellen Good, manager of the hospital’s Child Life Department accepted the gifts on behalf of the children. Good, along with representatives from the development office, thanked the girls for their wonderful donations and handmade cards and told them they should all be very proud of their accomplishments.