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Girl Scouts help secure $50,000 for school activities
Following last year’s cuts in extracurricular activities in the school district budget, many Baldwin residents joined forces to help restore some of the items that were defunded this year. They organized a charity basketball game, a car wash, a flea market and a music festival, among other fundraisers.
And adult volunteers weren’t the only ones who helped out. So, too, did a group of middle school students, to the tune of $50,000 for next year’s budget.
On March 31, eight members of Girl Scout Troop 2305 took a trip to Albany and paid a visit to the State Legislature. There they met with Assemblywoman Earlene Hooper (D-Hempstead), and told her how much extracurricular activities meant to their fellow students. As a result of their persuasive lobbying, Hooper informed them that the Baldwin School District would receive an additional $50,000 in state aid for after-school activities in 2014-15.
Hooper, the Assembly’s deputy speaker, visited Baldwin Middle School on May 2 to congratulate Troop 2305 and present the district with a check.
While the girls were at the Capitol, the Legislature was busy hammering out the final details of the state budget, which had to be completed by April 1. They watched as Assembly members debated spending, and then they met with Hooper during a recess.
Hooper asked each of the girls why they made the trip. “When I interviewed each girl individually,” she said, “each girl asked for something not for herself, but for her schoolmates and her colleagues.”
Many after-school activities like sports teams, clubs and annual events were not funded in the current school budget, and although the volunteer group Baldwin 4 Children helped raise $163,000 to restore some of those activities, not all could be saved.
Eighth-grader Sydney Gray, who has been a Girl Scout for seven years, said it was nice to know her efforts played a part in helping her school. “It feels almost overwhelming,” she said, “but at the same time I’m happy that we could do that for some of our peers who didn’t get a chance to play sports this year or didn’t get a chance to be in their favorite club. It’s a good feeling.”
