Kiersten Withstandley, a fifth grade student at in Freehold Township, earned the Girl Scout Bronze Award for her efforts with the Nike-Reuse-A-Shoe Program.
The Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest honor a Junior Girl Scout can achieve. The award requires completion of a Girl Scout Journey and a project selected by the iGirl or troop. Projects are a leadership adventure that requires a minimum of 20 hours spent on researching, planning and completing the project.
According to Jackie Withstandley, Kiersten's mother, the fifth-grader is an iGirl. Being an iGirl means she is not part of a troop and therefore her project was devloped all by herself and she earned this award on her own.
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Kiersten is an athlete. She wanted a project that related to sports. After researching a number of community service projects, Nike-Reuse-A-Shoe caught her eye.
The Nike-Reuse-A-Shoe Program collects and recycles worn sneakers, using them for athletic surfaces such as indoor and outdoor basketball courts, track, field, and playground surfaces.
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Kiersten’s task was to collect 500 sneakers to send to the Nike Program. She began collecting sneakers while at basketball camp last summer. With the assistance of Errickson C.A.R.E.S. program at her school, she continued collecting and surpassed her goal with a total of 630 sneakers!
The sneakers were sorted, packaged and sent to Nike-Reuse-A-Shoe in Memphis, Tennessee.
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