Local Gold Award Girl Scout Alumni has been selected as a T-Mobile Changemakers Challenge Project winner for her community service project; The Party Project
Eugene, OR, USA—Leah Haidar, a 2017 graduate of South Eugene High School and Girl Scout Gold Award recipient from Eugene, OR has been selected for her project; The Party Project as one of the 25 winning projects in the T-Mobile Changemakers Challenge. Leah along with her teammate, Ailsa Rea will attend the T-Mobile Challenge Lab in Seattle at T-Mobile Headquarters on Aug. 19-21st. In addition, she will receive a $1000 grant to continue to support The Party Project, a community service project that addresses the issue of equity by providing birthday party kits to low-income and homeless youth in the Lane County area.
Service activities for the Party Project will continue through 2018 & 2019 in partnership with the youth group at First United Methodist Church in Eugene, OR. The Party Project addresses the issue of the lack of non-essential services for low-income and homeless youth to be able to celebrate their birthdays. By providing birthday kits that included all of the items needed to host a birthday party, the Party Project hopes to make birthdays a fun and memorable event for the youth who receive a birthday box. Youth who are receiving services from six of the local social service agencies in Eugene (Womenspace, ShelterCare, Catholic Community Services, Hosea Youth, St. Vincent de Paul's and the Eugene Mission) are eligible to attain a birthday box. The goal of the Party Project is that all children have an opportunity to celebrate their birthday no matter what their family’s financial circumstances are.
About The Party Project
You can learn more about the Party Project including how you can help by liking and following the Facebook page at:
https://www.facebook.com/GirlScoutGoldPartyProject/
About Gold Award Girl Scout Leah Haidar
"After completing my Gold Award project, I learned that I am able to actually make a difference in my community. I have been able to apply the skills that I gained throughout this experience to other projects that I have become involved in. I believe I have better management skills and that I am better able to identify my team’s strengths earlier in the project process, thereby taking advantage of what talents my teammates have and best utilizing those. I have also learned that utilizing a team, rather than taking on a project on my own is more efficient and more fun. I have definitely learned to be a stronger leader." -Gold Award Girl Scout Leah Haidar
Ms. Haidar received her Girl Scout Gold Award in 2017 for her community service project: The Party Project. The Party Project is one of 25 from across the country selected from over 330 submissions in the T-Mobile Changemakers Challenge. Ms. Haidar is currently entering her sophomore year at Bryn Mawr College; her teammate Ailsa Rea will be a sophomore at the University of Oregon. Both are lifetime members of Girl Scouts. In addition to the T-Mobile Chagemaker Challenge, Ms. Haidar is a recipient of the $500 YSA/Disney Summer of Service Grant, the $250 YSA Kindness Rising Grant, the $250 Peace First Challenge Mini-grant and the $250 Peace First Youth Innovation Mini-Grant all of which have helped to continue the Party Project.
About the T-Mobile Changemaker Challenge
The Winning projects were selected based on the following criteria: Changemaker Quality – already taking steps to make a difference. Creativity – fresh, innovative ideas that challenge the norm. Commitment – devoted to seeing their project through and making a lasting impact. Connection – ability and openness to work with others in their communities
https://markets.on.nytimes.com/research/stocks/news/press_release.asp?docTag=201807231200BIZWIRE_USPRX____BW5474&feedID=600&press_symbol=7186257
About Youth Service America
Founded in 1986, YSA (Youth Service America) supports a global culture of engaged children and youth committed to a lifetime of meaningful service, learning, and leadership. With half the world’s population under age 25, YSA’s mission is to help young people find their voice, take action, and make an impact on vital community issues. For more information, visit www.YSA.org.
About Peace First
Founded 25 years ago, Peace First is a global youth movement, unleashing young people’s compassionate creativity to counter the rising culture of exclusion, violence, and disconnection that affects us all. Across the globe there is a frightening rise in extremism, isolation, and despair. We have lost our basic capacity to come together to solve problems; to view other people’s needs as our own, and to cross lines of difference to build community. Meanwhile, there are 1.6 billion young people across the globe, many with ideas on how to solve the world’s most entrenched problems, but only a very few have access to tools, mentors, and capital to turn their insights into reality. Peace First is changing this. For more information visit https://www.peacefirst.org/
About Girl Scouts of Oregon and Southwest Washington
GSOSW serves 13,955 girls in 37 counties with the help of nearly 10,000 volunteers. The Girl Scout mission is to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. Every opportunity in Girl Scouting develops these essential skills in an all-girl, inclusive, safe environment. For information, please visit girlscoutsosw.org.
###