Teen Sets Sights On Helping Haiti For Girl Scouts Gold Award

An area girl is working towards her Girl Scout Hold Award by creating clothes for people in need.

Hope Walsh, 17, lives in Yardley and is a junior at the Pennington School in New Jersey. She has been involved with Girl Scouts for nine years and is a day camp counselor for younger girl scouts at the Pen Ryn School in Fairless Hills. Walsh has already received her Girl Scout Bronze and Silver awards. The Gold Award requires 80 hours of work, including 10 hours in a leadership role that benefits an outside organization.

Walsh’s project consists of making dresses and shorts for those in need in Haiti. Walsh’s school also has a “Haiti Initiative,” where a local church and a ministry organization based in Haiti work to provide food, water and clothing, according to Marah Walsh, Hope’s mother.

Hope Walsh got the idea for clothing when she attended a Girl Scout workshop and helped a peer make pillowcase dresses. Her affinity for sewing and designing clothes came together in her current goal: to provide each student attending school in a remote region of Haiti with a dress or pair of shorts.

According to Marah Walsh, the school, built in the LaSalle region of Haiti, came in to being in part due to the partnership between a church and the ministry organization. Hope Walsh plans to present the clothing to the students in March of 2018.

Hope Walsh has designed the clothes going to the students herself and working with volunteers, directs the actual production of the clothes. The materials for the clothes come from donations coming through her school and outside organizations such as the UNTOLD Foundation Concussion Awareness, Broad Street Run, and Girl Scout Color Fun Run.

“I love helping people, especially children. Being able to make a change, even in this small way, makes me feel so good,” Hope Walsh explained.

Hope Walsh said she wants to present each student at the school with a piece of clothing. This means she needs to make at least 150 total items. So far, she has created about 30 dressed and five pairs of shorts.

“She is up cycling the unused and no longer needed shirts into functional clothing helping to keep the give them new life and provide new clothes to the children in Haiti,” Marah Walsh said.

Those interested in helping Hope Walsh out and volunteering can contact Marah Walsh at marahwalsh@gmail.com. To volunteer, Hope Walsh can bring materials to your home with instructions on how to complete the dress and pick it up once it is complete.