Project ArtBox

My name is Erin McBriarty and I am 16 years old. I am a junior at Grayslake North High School. I am an Ambassador Girl Scout, the highest level of Girl Scouts. I am currently working on achieving my Girl Scout Gold Award. The Gold Award is the highest achievement within the Girl Scouts of the USA, earned by Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts. Only 5.4% of eligible Girl Scouts successfully earn the Gold Award. There are a series of steps to complete. Once these steps have been met, girls use their vision for change to complete a service project that reaches beyond the Girl Scout organization and provides lasting benefit to the girl's larger community. It requires a minimum of 80 hours of work in planning and actually completing the project. All of these hours must be completed by the Awardee, and though it is encouraged that the girl uses troop members to help implement the project. Plans must be developed with the aid of an advisor, then a project proposal must be submitted and approved by the girl's local council before starting the project, and a final report submitted and approved after the project's completion. My project is called “Project Art Box,” and my service project is to build an art “library” for the children at Shriner’s Children Hospital in Chicago. Shriner’s Hospital is a non-profit hospital who helps kids regardless of the family’s ability to pay. The children at Shriner’s in Chicago suffer from Brittle Bone Disease and can’t be held or touched without getting ill or hurt. The children there have little to no access to art and through my research I have found that art drastically can help improve the mental and emotional conditions of patients in hospitals. I am planning multiple visits to the children at the hospital and give mini-sessions to teach the kids how to do some of these crafts. I am also going to be making tins filled with crafts, supplies, and instructions for the kids to do when I no longer am there. I am writing this letter to ask for donations of Art & Craft Books for the children at Shriner’s Hospital.