Though 2020 was a challenging year for everyone, three teens in Chester made productive use of quarantine time by completing requirements and substantial service projects to earn the Girl Scout Silver Award.

With this achievement, Madeleine Adinolfi, Maria Arostegui and Elizabeth Hoye have become community leaders. Their accomplishments reflect leadership and citizenship skills that set them apart.
Adinolfi, Arostegui and Hoye are members of Chester Girl Scout Troop 95052, and designed very different projects.

Adinolfi donated items to create a relaxation space at Black River Middle School. She took pre-orders and sold homemade cookie arrangements for Father’s Day, raising more than $500 toward the purchase of lounge chairs, a portable dvd/cd player, cds, earbuds, mediation books, art set with coloring books, throw pillows, a rock salt lamp, and relaxation toys. 

“I chose to add a relaxation area to Black River because school stress can make students suffer from more intense mental illnesses,” said Adinolfi, now a freshman at West Morris Mendham High School. “I hope my project can help reduce school stress and help students manage their mental health.”

Arostegui earned financial support through a lasagne sale to renovate the laundry room at Chester Area Senior Housing. Using her creativity and love of design, Arostequi selected paint colors, using semi-gloss paint so the color will last as long as possible. Much of the project was updating and polishing the room to look new and clean as well as functional for the residents utilizing it.

“Though my research, I learned about the effect color has on mood and actual space overall,” noted Arostegui, a freshman at West Morris Mendham High School. “I discovered that the color blue and the color yellow are the perfect combination for senior centers because they invite calm and happy feelings while also elevating the space’s overall appearance.

Hoye raised money and built and installed two bat houses at Chubb Park in Chester Township. To do this, she sought approval from the Chester Township Parks Committee, raised funds, purchased the bat houses, posts and other supplies needed, painted the bat houses so they could retain the correct amount of sunlight, installed the posts and bat houses at Chubb Park.

“Bat houses provide safe homes for bats, who feed on mosquitos in the area,” noted Hoye, who now attends the Academy of Animal Science at the Morris County School for Technology, to best prepare her for her career as a veterinarian. “Fewer people will get bitten by mosquitos in the summer, and bats also eat bugs that harm crops and in doing so lead to farmers using fewer pesticides that pollute the air and harm different ecosystems.”

The girls of Troop 95052 are now working toward requirements to begin work on their Gold Awards. A spring time camping trip is in the works, as well as more service to the Chester community.