In the fall of 2021, a group of girls from Troop 42733 started brainstorming projects that would have an impact on our community. We came together to share our ideas and took a vote. Once the votes were in, our marvelous troop decided to provide backpacks for refugee children through Lutheran Family Services (LFS) in Colorado Springs. From there we got to work.
First we put together questions to ask Brittney, the refugee coordinator who helps Afghan families. Up next, we discussed how many backpacks we were going to provide, what we were going to put in them, and most importantly, how we were going to pay for the items.
We decided that we were going to have a goal of 18-24 backpacks. Each backpack would contain the following items: crayons, pencils, paper, markers, a visual dictionary, and a small toy.
Now how were we going to pay for all this? We sought donations from local stores, as well as from family members. Staples, family members, the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency, and 5 Below were all significant supporters of our project. The 5 Below store even let us set up a booth in front of their business, where many kind strangers responded by donating money and buying supplies to include in the backpacks.
After sorting the donations, we stuffed 24 backpacks with school supplies of all sorts, including notebooks, folders, art supplies, and a homemade stuffed animal! On a Friday afternoon, our troop met after school and gave the backpacks to LFS. This concluded our bronze award project. It felt good to work hard as a team for such a worthy cause.
Written By Evie, 5th Grader, Troop 42733