Nine Girl Scouts from Troop 330 in Suffolk have earned the Girl Scout Bronze Award, the third highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouts.

Kamryn Monroe, Kya Baldwin, Eshani Patel, Leann Purkey, Caroline Zemaitis, Morgan Campbell, Ashley Morrell, Brielle McGrath and Carolina Chavez are the recent honorees.

The girls celebrated their hard work and dedication to the community at a recent bridging ceremony, where they advanced from Girl Scout Juniors to Girl Scout Cadettes.

From helping homeless people in their community to creating a butterfly garden to raise awareness about childhood cancer, these Girl Scouts left a lasting impact on their community with their service to the area around them.

Carolina shared about how her project impacted her at the ceremony. She said she set out to complete her Bronze Award because she wanted to help people less fortunate than her. Her project not only allowed her to help others, but also showed her how much she has to be thankful for, too.

“My greatest accomplishment has been my Bronze Award,” she recalled.

Because of her one-of-a-kind Girl Scout Leadership Experience, Carolina’s sister, Marisa Chavez, even joined the premier leadership organization for girls a few years ago.

“Girl Scouts has shown me how to be a better person because you’re helping people with community projects and it shows you can make a difference even if it’s a small impact,” Marisa said.

The troop’s service to the community is far from complete. The girls plan to create friendship bags to distribute to kids who may be dealing with depression and anxiety or who may be getting bullied at school, Girl Scout troop leader Kellie Baldwin said.

Community service has always been an integral part of Girl Scouts and was something its founder, Juliette Gordon Low, valued the most. Today, we encourage girls to make a difference in their neighborhoods, schools and places of worship through community service projects. Girls may also conduct Take Action projects that provide community service at a more in-depth level. For more information on how you can get involved in your community as a Girl Scouts, visit www.gsccc.org.