Lowell — When considering projects to work on for Girl Scouts, Lowell High School senior Claire Uzarski and Lowell Middle School seventh-grader Delaney Powell wanted to give back to Murray Lake Elementary School, where they both attended.
Claire, who graduated May 22, created a 13-cubby storage organizer with color-coded bins containing small objects and toys known as fidgets. They benefit students who, like her, have attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, she said.
Delaney built a game table for the playground, where students can play chess, checkers and tic-tac-toe during recess.
Claire, a scout since kindergarten, completed the project to earn her Gold Award, the most prestigious award in Girl Scouting. Delaney, who has also been scouting since she was in kindergarten, completed her project to earn her Silver Award, another significant award.
The storage unit Claire created is now in special education teacher Brooke Culver’s classroom. Claire said the feathery, glittery, poofy and other tactile items are great for helping students concentrate.
“I knew I always wanted to do something to help kids like me in a classroom thrive,” said Claire, who was diagnosed with ADHD in third grade and would have loved to have fidgets to help her concentrate. “I always move, even if it’s something as simple as tapping my fingers on a pencil, clicking a pen, bouncing my leg or moving in a seat. … I always need to do something while I’m working.”
Claire worked 80 hours on her project, which was approved by Girl Scouts of Michigan Shore to Shore. She will receive her award during a ceremony on June 8.
Claire plans to attend a community college and pursue a nurse practitioner degree. She also will soon receive her Girl Scouts lifetime membership.
Delaney’s activity picnic table — complete with bags of game pieces — is now next to the playground at Murray Lake. She worked with her dad, measuring, sawing, assembling and painting, and tallied 50 hours of work on it.
“It’s to help prevent loneliness and to give students more educational opportunities during recess,” she said. “You have chess and checkers providing them educational game activities … I wasn’t always the biggest fan of recess because I didn’t always have something to do. I feel like I would have liked to have something like this.”
Delaney said she plans to continue scouting throughout high school, eventually get her Gold Award and someday become a troop leader.
Murray Lake Principal Molly Burnett said she was honored the girls chose to give back to Murray Lake.
“What a sense of pride for myself and Murray Lake,” she said. “They could have chosen to do anything but they chose something that would benefit our students and our school. I love that sense of giving back. Our students were very excited about the new activities and games their projects provided for our school.”
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