Car  ’17 will receive her Girl Scout Gold Award for her work with the Veterans Home of California, West Los Angeles (CalVet), at the Pasadena Civic Center on Saturday, June 3. The Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can receive, and requires the recipient to work for at least 80 hours on implementing a sustainable project in her community.
Car has been a Girl Scout since 2nd Grade, when she was one of 60 girls in her elementary school troop. Nine years later, Car’s troop consists of only three members. Despite this, Car said the program allows her to focus on giving back to the community.
“[Girl Scouts] is very much about service and learning leadership and trying to do something for someone else,” Car said.
At CalVet, Car is working to revitalize the veterans’ living spaces and create opportunities for other Girl Scouts to get involved with the organization. Car has painted an American flag mural and is planting flowers on CalVet’s patio. She also started a Bingo Night and said she will begin to bring in other Girl Scouts to play bingo with the residents each month.
Car said she has a personal connection to the work she is doing and hopes to provide the veterans with a place where they can enjoy being outside in a secure space.
“My grandma had dementia, and one of her favorite things to do, even though she couldn’t really talk or interact with people, was to…sit outside. Because [many of the veterans] have Alzheimer’s…they can’t go outside and be unsupervised, so it’s nice that they have this patio space,” she said.
Car is working in the memory care unit, under the supervision of CalVet activity coordinator Angel Craig. Craig met Car last year, and said that she is impressed with the initiative Car has demonstrated by pursuing the Gold Award and appreciates the energy Car has put into her project.
“She’s very passionate about her work and from what I see, I think she takes on a lot of responsibilities. The elderly population loves it when a younger generation comes in and they just bring that energy of life to the place. I think the impact is going to be tremendous,” Craig said.