Caribbean L 24 ife, Sept. 27 - Oct.3, 2019
Natalia Small hands over medicine bottles to COSAGO. Ancilla Friday
Vincy sisters receive Girl
Scouts Gold, Silver Awards
By Nelson A. King
Two Vincentian sisters, members of
the Girl Scouts at St. Paul’s Church in
the Village of Flatbush, Brooklyn were
recently presented with the Girl Scouts
Gold and Silver Awards.
Natalie Small received the Girl Scouts
Gold Award, the highest and most prestigious
award a Senior Girl Scout can
earn in Girl Scouting, at a ceremony
at Baruch College, City University of
New York, according to Ancilla Friday,
Girl Scouts Leader and
Program Director at St.
Paul’s Church in the Village
of Flatbush.
Natalie’s younger sister,
Natalia, (don’t get confused
by the spelling of their
first names) received the
Girl Scouts Silver Award,
the highest achievement
a Cadette Girl Scout can
earn, “which marks her
as an accomplished and
distinguished member of
her community and the
world,” Friday told Caribbean
Life.
She said more than
5,500 Girl Scouts “nationally
design, implement
Natalie Small (center)
as she receives the Girl
Scout Gold Award from
by CEO of Girl Scouts,
Meridith Maskara
(left) and Natalie’s Girl
Scouts Leader, Ancilla
Friday. Ancilla Friday
and complete Gold Award projects every
year in the USA.”
“Each girl is required to design and
complete an 80-plus hour ‘Take Action’
project that will have a great impact on
her environment,” Friday said.
In her project, she said Natalie
addressed the inadequacy of school supplies
for youth in her community.
“She provided children at her former
daycare / elementary school with backpacks
and school supplies to improve
the quality of their learning tools,” Friday
said.
“She would like to thank her mom
and leaders for supporting and encouraging
her on this journey, and everyone
who donated supplies to her project,”
she added about Natalie, the first child
of Nolan and Michelle Small of Frenches,
Kingstown, St. Vincent and the
Grenadines.
Natalie joined the Girl Scouts as a
Brownie at the tender age of five. She is
currently enrolled in Medgar Evers College,
where she is majoring in science,
with a concentration in mathematics.
“Receiving my Girl
Scouts Gold Award, the
highest award in Girl
Scouts, was an honor and
a privilege,” Natalie told
Caribbean Life. “It was an
amazing feeling giving
back to my community.
“It was also inspiring
for other children to see
someone of a young age
being so generous,” she
added. “Just the ability to
put a smile on the faces of
many children was reward
enough and a humbling
experience.”
Friday said Natalia was
among 187 girls in New
York City who demonstrated
“real leadership in their communities
through the design and completion
of a 50-plus hour ‘Take Action
Project.’”
She said Natalia completed a global
project in which she collected more than
1,000 medicine bottles from members of
her community and presented them to
members of the Brooklyn-based Vincentian
umbrella organization, Council
of St. Vincent and the Grenadines
Organization, USA, Inc. (COSAGO) to
be shipped to the Milton Cato Memorial
Hospital in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.