Six Newport Harbor girls earn scouting honor

Alyssa Allison loves animals. So much so that they became the focus of a 65-hour service project the 14-year-old embarked on to earn her Girl Scout Silver Award.

The award, earned in five parts, is tough enough as it is since it can take nearly two years to complete, said Stacy Thomas, past service unit manager and speaker at an event Sunday honoring those who earned Silver Awards.

“For the first four requirements, the girls are expected to build skills, explore career possibilities, increase leadership skills and make a commitment to improve themselves,” Thomas said.

The final component in earning the honor is the Silver Award Project, a project completed while utilizing the first four requirements.

That’s where Alyssa made things even tougher on herself.

The Newport Harbor High School freshman searched online for candidate animal shelters, but with one strict requirement. The shelter Alyssa would assist could not euthanize the animals.

“So many animals are being killed to make room for a new batch to take their place in the shelters,” Alyssa said.

She searched for a long time and found nothing, Alyssa’s mom, Karen Allison, said.

But with a little help from Alyssa’s aunt, Linda Morell, all was not lost. Morell helped her niece locate Living Free Animal Sanctuary in Mountain Center, nearly 30 miles east of Lake Elsinore.

Delivering donations or even just to walk a dog or two required lengthy journeys for the three, but the girl’s mother and aunt accompanied Alyssa on every trip.

The projects build character so that they can become caring adults, Allison said.

Allison, who leads another troop, proudly awarded her daughter with the award Sunday in front of Aunt Linda and the rest of Alyssa’s family.

Alyssa went more than 20 hours over the required time for her project, mainly because she wanted to finish a quilt for the kittens out there, Karen Allison said.

A Girl Scout for the past 10 years, Alyssa was just one of six girls from Newport Harbor High School who earned the second highest Girl Scout honor. The ceremony was Sunday afternoon at the Mesa Verde United Methodist Church. Hana Gandi, Gretchen Jochem, Keely Johnson, Rachelle Pursell and Emily Sin were also honored in front of family and friends for achieving the Silver Award.

In addition to the silver pins and patches commemorating the award, the girls received packets containing letters from city council members and Newport Harbor High’s Principal Michael Vossen.

The theme behind almost every project was helping man’s little fuzzy friends, and the not-so-fuzzy ones. Half of the projects focused on providing homes for neglected animals, or those who simply have not found the perfect home yet.

Keely and Hana took care of animals during weekdays for a local PetSmart store. The girls would bring the cats back to the store on weekends to be viewed by potential purchasers.

The girls would also volunteer their time cleaning cages and caring for the kittens in and out of the store.

“It was really rewarding,” Keely said. “I learned a lot about how to help with animals, all the different needs.”

Keely, a sophomore at Newport Harbor, has already begun planning her project to receive the Gold Award, the highest honor for scouts.

“I don’t know what my project is yet, but there is a lot of paperwork and preparing first.”