Troop 83 Bronze Award Project
Julia’s Butterfly Foundation
May 29, 2014

The 5th grade Troop 83 at St. Elizabeth School in Wyckoff recently earned their Girl Scout Bronze Award with a project aimed at meeting the needs of chronically and terminally ill children. The Bronze Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Junior can earn. This “take action” group project encourages girls to focus on an issue they care about and they would like to improve within their Girl Scout or local community.

“When deciding what project they wanted to work on together, the girls agreed they wanted to make a difference for children”, said Carol Ann Lowell, one of the Leaders of Troop 83. “Specifically children who were sick.”

Troop 83 invited Christine Callahan, the President of Julia’s Butterfly Foundation and Shannon Heffernan, a social worker from St. Joseph’s Hospital in Peterson, to speak to the troop about the needs of terminally and chronically ill children and to learn more about the challenges these families face. It was at that meeting that Troop 83 decided to partner with Julia’s Butterfly Foundation, a local non-profit organization dedicated to improving the lives of these children and their families.

Ms. Callahan thought it was a wonderful idea to partner with Troop 83. The girls wanted to help someone similar in age and Ms. Callahan had just received a request from a family for an adaptive bike for their 12 year-old son. “It was perfect timing and meant to be. The girls immediately began to brainstorm ways to raise awareness about the struggles of these families and to earn money to purchase the bike for this boy.”

Frank Morrone, a representative from Freedom Concepts in Canada, agreed to attend another Troop 83 meeting to share more about adaptive bikes, how they are used, and what they cost. He brought an adaptive bike to demonstrate to the girls. The orange bike had all of the special design features meant to help a physically challenged child enjoy a bike ride with his or her family.

In order to help raise the funds to purchase the bike to donate, Troop 83 decided to sponsor two events at St. Elizabeth’s School. The first was a “tag day” where students at the school, who normally where a uniform everyday, donated $2.00 for the privilege to wear jeans and something orange – the color for Julia’s Butterfly Foundation. The second was an after school “movie day”. Donations were accepted for students to watch a favorite animated movie and enjoy popcorn and other snacks at the concession stand. With these two events that the girls raised almost $2,000.00 to purchase an adaptive bike.

“It really the collective effort of these 18 girls, that made this project such a success,” said Ms. Lowell. “It was their vision, planning, research and hard work that very much earned them this Bronze Award.”

Ms. Callahan also had high praise for Troop 83. “Julia’s Butterfly Foundation was honored that the girls asked to partner with our Foundation. Their spirit of service, and commitment to helping this child receive the adaptive bike he desperately needed, was inspiring. Their work will have a long lasting effect both for this child and for the community who now better understand the challenges these families face.”

If you would like to support the efforts of Troop 83, you can still send donations to Julia’s Butterfly Foundation at 636 Wyckoff Avenue, Suite 285, Wyckoff, NJ 07481. Note the donation is for the Troop 83 Bronze Award project.