Ambassador Girl Scout Miriam Ryburne, pictured with Joyce Maienschein, has been awarded a Joyce Maienschein Leadership Grant of financial support for the service project she created to help needy children in the USA and in Indonesia. (Submitted photo)
The Girl Scout Council of the Southern Appalachians has announced recent recipients of Leadership Grants to provide financial support for community service projects. The grant winners, middle- and high-school-age Girl Scouts, have each created and are leading a different community project.
Miriam Ryburne, daughter of Oak Ridgers Nan Shugart and Mark Cantley, organized and taught a team of people to make hand-knitted items for an all-girls orphanage in Indonesia, as well as for six other organizations, including the Florence Crittenden Agency and East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.
Allison Campbell, of Knoxville, is upgrading the East Tennessee Children’s Hospital doctors’ waiting room, designing and printing activity books for the children, and gathering immediate needs for patients.
Sierra Turner of Chattanooga is collecting CD players and CDs for cancer patients at Children’s Hospital at Erlanger.
Spring City Girl Scouts Anastasia Aubie, Hailey Peppers, Natalie Baker, and Rheanna Reese have together started the Hands On Food Pantry at First Presbyterian Church in Spring City.
Morgan DeGeere of Soddy Daisy is creating a Junior Marine Biologist program in conjunction with The Tennessee Aquarium in Chattanooga.
The Leadership Grant Program recognizes the legacy of longtime Girl Scout volunteer Joyce Maienschein, whose former Oak Ridge troops started the Children’s Museum of Oak Ridge and won the internationally respected Walter Donald Ross Award. “Mrs. M,” as the girls called her, was awarded the prestigious Juliette Low World Friendship Medal from Girl Scouts of the USA.
The Girl Scout Council of Southern Appalachians covers a 46-county area, and any Girl Scout in grades 6-12 is eligible to apply for a grant to help fund a project. Grant application packages are available at the Council website at www.girlscoutcsa.org.
For more information, contact program coordinators Patty Cook at (865) 481-3099, Gail Yook at (865) 408-2591, or Amanda Meade at the Girl Scout office at (800) 474-1912. The Leadership Grants are completely funded by donations to the Joyce Maienschein Leadership Grant. Contributions are greatly appreciated and may be sent to the Joyce Maienschein Leadership Grant, Girl Scouts of the Southern Appalachians, 1567 Downtown West Blvd., Knoxville, TN 37719. Donors should note JM Grant Account on their check.
