Girl Scouts Troop 882 made 100 “cake kits” to donate to the Santa Clarita Valley Food Pantry on Saturday morning as part of the girls’ project to get their silver award.
Shannon Bardales, troop leader of Girl Scouts Troop 882, said the goal of the project was to help the community.
“So, for Girl Scouts, it’s the highest-level honor they can get on their level, which is their Cadettes. So, in Cadettes, silver award is the highest award they can earn. So, they have to spend 80 to 100 hours on their projects. They have to research and find something that will better the community, that will be sustainable,” Bardales said.
The project the 13-year-old girls chose was to make non-perishable “cake kits” for the SCV Food Pantry to hand out to the people the pantry helps.
The kits include a box of cake mix, frosting, a can of Sprite to replace the eggs and oil, birthday candles, the pan to bake in, a birthday card, balloons and the instructions.
Bardales said that it took the girls four months to acquire all the supplies and then about a day to make the kits.
“We made a flyer, and it has a QR code, and we gave it to friends and family. The QR code went to our Amazon wish list. And then, the donations were all made through Amazon. So, we received only physical donations, and they all shipped to my house. So, I had a garage full of stuff,” Bardales said while laughing.
Rachel Compton, director of community development at the SCV Food Pantry, was excited about the kits because they were homemade and thoughtful.
“I think it’s awesome, especially when young people want to get involved with helping other people. And it’s really the small things that really mean a lot to people. You know, they come in a time of need, and they’ll get, you know, a lot (of) basic food items from us,” Compton said. “But if they get a custom kit that someone put thought into outside of that, it makes all the difference for people, so it’s really great.”
Melina Alfred, one of the girls, was the first to give out a cake kit to a person.
“It felt really good giving someone something that I worked hard on making,” Alfred said.
Preslee Middleton, another girl in the troop, felt good about doing something that would make someone’s day better.
Madison Lepresle echoed Middleton’s statement.
“It just makes me feel good about myself and all my friends right here because it’s, like, there’s people like, struggling with everything and just helping them out just makes me feel good,” Lapresle said.
With the girls getting their silver award after doing this, Girl Scout Emma James said it was not about getting the award, but she was thinking about just helping people.
