16 Year Old Madisyn Kaijala chose for her Girl Scout Gold Award project to restore 60 children’s bikes for Camp Putnam in New Braintree. The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest award that is given in Girl Scouts. She also managed to raise $700 in order to buy helmets in all sizes as well as a ShelterLogic tent to store the bikes during the winter. She spent a total of 93 hours completing her Gold Award project.
In the Summer of 2019, Kaijala had been a counselor in training at Camp Putnam and had noticed that camp’s bikes needed repairing. There were also several small helmet sizes missing and many of the bikes and bike chains were rusted and broken.
Kaijala stated that, “At first I was going to do the project not as a Gold Award project but just on my own because it upset me seeing the kids all sad about the bikes at the camp, It was my mom who suggested I do it for my Gold Award project.”
Meanwhile Putnam Camp co-owner Duncan Stewart stated, “She’s a very sweet young lady and has an interest in what she’s doing.”
On top of learning a ton about bike maintenance, Kaijala expressed how she learned it is possible to make a difference in the community through lots of hard work. She added that, “I couldn’t do it without the help of my mother! She drove me to and from a lot of places, she helps me transport the bikes to and from the camp, and she helped me repair a lot of the bikes.”
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