Snellville Girl Scout earns GSUSA Silver Award

Congratulations to Girl Scout Ashley Singh for earning the Girl Scout Silver Award. The Silver Award represents the highest achievement Cadette Girl Scouts can achieve for making an impact on their community. The Girl Scouts USA Silver Award recognizes girls in grades 7 through 8 who demonstrate extraordinary leadership through Take Action G.I.R.L. led community service projects.

Ashley resides in Snellville, GA, and is a freshman student at Dacula High School and is no stranger to community service awards and earned the 2020 Gold Level Presidential Volunteer Service Award for more than 100 hours of community service in one year. Ashley has been an active Girl Scout members since age 8 and currently participates in the Girl Scout leadership pathway troop Gamma Gamma Sigma – Gwinnett. Ashley completed her Silver Award along with project partner NaZyia Macon of Sugar Hill, GA called Dream of Artistic Flight. The project focused on cancer patients at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. The project provided materials to use art as therapy to distract patients during their long stay in the hospital. Art therapy is known to provide positive benefits such as calming thoughts, increased encouragement, and provide a creative outlet during a stressful time of dealing with a chronic illness. The Dreams of Artistic Flight Silver Award project was able to support a total of 30 hospital beds and children patients with Cancer Age 0 – 21 Years at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. The scouts set a goal and exceeded by providing more than 60 art kits and supplies. By earning the Girl Scout Silver Award, Ashley has become a community leader. Her accomplishments reflect leadership and citizenship skills that set her apart from her peers.

The project topic was identified through research and personal connection. Ashley learned that Globally, there are more than 300,000 children around the world diagnosed with Cancer. Each year in the U.S., there are an estimated 15,780 children between the ages of birth and 19 years of age who are diagnosed with cancer. Nationally, approximately 1 in 285 children in the U.S. will be diagnosed with Cancer before their 20th birthday. After many months of planning and organizing, the Girl Scouts provided education and raised awareness on the positive benefits of art therapy to benefit young patients who have frequent hospital or have long treatment stays at the hospital. The initial project involved holding an art session with the patients of Children's Healthcare, they were met with challenges and limitations due to COVID-19. Both Girl Scouts were quick on their feet and came up with an interactive solution using technology. The Scouts designed a website highlighting their project cause and also built a YouTube channel providing art tutorial videos and constructed a hand-illustrated art book providing a series of drawings and sketches based on artist skill level. Saturday, September 26, 2020, the Scouts delivered their hand-painted art Kit tote. Volunteer Coordinator Gabrielle Markle advised the Girl Scouts "Thank you so much for gathering donations for this very special project. We are so grateful you thought about our patients and wanted to help them in this time."

Ashley saw a need in her community and around the world and took action. Her extraordinary dedication, perseverance, and leadership is making the world a better place." To learn more about the Dream of Artistic Flight Project, reference the website: https://sites.google.com/view/dreamofartisticfligt/home