The ceremonies were held on Sunday May 4th,2003 at Hamden Lodge to kick off Elks National Youth Week Celebration. There were actually three ceremonies:
1. Hamden's Bridging of all Hamden Girl Scouts from Daisy, Brownie, Juniors, Cadets and Seniors, that is, each group graduating to the next level.
2. Hamden / North Haven Area Awards Ceremony to recognize Scouts from both towns that reached a particular achievement . Gold Award the highest a Girl Scout can receive. It honors a girl for having demonstrated an exceptional commitment to her community and outstanding dedication to achievement. It is a very difficult award to receive since it requires a personal project approved by Scout Council advisors which extends over 50 hours. It is much more difficult than BSA Eagle Award. In addition 17 Scouts received a Silver Award which is also very difficult to achieve it is one step below the Gold and is the highest award a Cadette Scout can receive It is symbolic of accomplishments in Girl Scouting and community activities as you grow and work to better your life and the lives of others, it also has a project attached to the requirements . The next level is the newly created Bronze Award of which we had 7 Scouts achieving it. It is the Highest Award a Junior Scout can receive. It helps build life time skills and skills working within your community and the world to help others while helping to improve ones community at the same time within the team.
3. North Haven conducted their Bridging Ceremony the same as Hamden's procedure above graduating each class to the next scouting Level.
All in All we had a 175 Scouts participate along with over 300 parents in attendance during the day.
There were 17 Silver awards, one posthumously awarded to Scout Emma Sundereman along with one Gold Award to Sarah Jane Compton.
These honorees are pictured above; Back Row , left to right Silver Awards-- Laura Byrne, Rachel Burns, Cara Given, Kendra Norup, Regina Scafariello, Katie Merwin, Shannon Spencer, Karen Zusi,
Middle Row, Katie Peterson, Kelsey Onofrio, Alyssa Burns, GOLD AWARD WINNER
Sarah Jane Compton, Silver Awards Megan Cruz, Jodi Baloga, Anna Landiso, and Kayla DeCarr.
Also pictured are the presenters at the Ceremony Left to Right Hamden's Mayor Carl Amento, Noth Haven's First Selectman Kevin Kopetz, MC & CEA's Scouting Coordinator Robert Curran, CEA's Vice President Philip Wilson, Hamden Elks ER Edward Gorman, CEA's Youth Services Chairman Charles Lusk.
In addition there were 7 scouts from North Haven receiving the newly created Bronze Award.
Both Towns also presented to the Lodge Proclamations declaring the first week in May as Elks National Youth Week in their respective communities
Connecticut Elks Association's " Elroy the Elk" also attended the Scout Bridging Ceremonies to congratulate the Bridging Scouts
( Peter Freiler happened to miss it somehow, hmmm...)
Submitted by Robert Curran