Amazing Kids! is proud to highlight the Amazing Kids! of the Month!

Each month, we showcase kids who are accomplishing amazing things.  We hope that by telling their special stories, we will inspire other kids to accomplish their own amazing achievements. 

Brittany Roach, age 13 Amazing Cadette Girl Scout & Humanitarian

"I did not do these activities for the glory or the praise from others.  I do community service for self-respect and the knowledge that I made a difference in someone's life."

Ever wonder how you can help others who are less fortunate than yourselves? This month, our Amazing Kids! of the Monthstory proudly features an amazing young lady Brittany Roach and her fellow Girl Scout humanitarians who went above and beyond the call of duty to raise 3,000 pounds of clothing, blankets, toys, quilts, wheelchairs, crutches, etc., and donated them to help 350 orphans at three Polish orphanages and patients in one hospital!

Read their inspiring stoy below and who knows?  Maybe you'll be inspired to find a way of helping others less fortunate than you! 

Table of Contents 

Amazing Girl Scouts and Humanitarians 

In Her Own Words:  Brittany Talks About Her Community Service

Amazing Girl Scouts and Humanitarians
 
 
 

Brittany and boxes of donations

Brittany Roach is 13 years old and a 7th grader at Paul Revere Middle School in Brentwood, California.   Amazing Brittany is both an excellent student and an outstanding citizen.  She is in the School for Advanced Studies and is a straight-A student!

Brittany has been making a difference in her community since the fall of 1997, when Brittany wrote a letter to her California State Senator Hayden.  In her letter, she suggested that the Gabrielino/Tongva Natural Springs at a local Los Angeles high school become a cultural center.  Amazing Brittany’s letter gave birth to Senate Bill No. 1956, which went into effect on January 1, 1999! On April 29, 1999, Brittany was presented with the "California State Senate Certificate of Recognition in honor of her service to her community and to the State of California by encouraging her State Senator to preserve and protect and enhance the Gabrielino/Tongva Native American Springs on the University High School campus."

In the summer of 2000, Brittany decided to earn the Girl Scout Silver Award, the highest honor given to Cadette Girl Scouts.  Before Brittany could begin her Silver Award project, which she called "Collections for Kids," she had to earn patches requiring leadership skills and community service.  Brittany’s community service project was to coordinate and organize a clothing and shoe drive through the Brentwood Presbyterian Church Youth Groups, which benefitted "A Place Called Home," an after school center for disadvantaged kids. The final result was collecting enough clothes and shoes to completely fill a van.
 
 
 

Brittany collecting clothing and shoes

Having proven herself with a project which benefitted 75 families living in Watts, Brittany next set her sites on Warsaw, Poland!  Brittany coordinated several clothing and toy drives in a span of five months and enlisted the help of two other Girl Scout Troops in Los Angeles, Junior Girl Scouts from Troop #441, amazing fourth graders at Carlthorp School in Brentwood/Palisades, a community in Los Angeles, and Senior Girl Scouts from Troop #214, amazing 9th graders from Santa Monica, California.  One of the troops, Troop #214, made beautiful handmade baby quilts as their Silver Award project and donated 22 of the quilts for the babies living in the Little Child Orphanage in Warsaw, Poland.  The Brentwood/Palisades Brownie Troop #441 donated two cases of disposable diapers. 

The final list of donated items included: 11 wheelchairs, 2 pairs of crutches, 720 blankets, 20 handmade baby quilts, 380 stuffed animals, 45 boxes of clothing, 4 boxes of sporting goods, 75 children's books written in English, disposable diapers, school supplies, 100 toothbrushes, bedding, cosmetics, a baby crib, and mattress. When all of the items where packed and ready to be shipped, the contents weighed 3,000 pounds! The aid was donated to three Polish orphanages and one hospital.  Approximately 350 orphans, ranging in ages from newborn to 24 years of age, received aid from Brittany’s project. 
 
 

Brittany in front of her cargo 
containers destined for Poland

Northwest Airlines sent the humanitarian aid from Los Angeles to Warsaw at no charge. In addition to the help from Girl Scout troops #441 and #214,  Brittany’s "Collections for Kids" project received support from schools, churches, corporations, the United States Customs Office, the International Scouting Commission, and Mrs. Laura Bush, the First Lady of the United States!

Brittany planned to visit Poland and distribute the aid with the assistance of teenage Polish scouts. On June 15, 2001, Brittany and her parents boarded an airplane in Los Angeles with the expectation of arriving in Warsaw, Poland for a humanitarian mission.  However, things don't always go as planned.  Brittany’s father suffered a stroke on the airplane flight from Los Angeles to London.  Instead of getting a connecting flight to Warsaw, Brittany found herself leaving Heathrow Airport in an ambulance with her father, who could not remember her name.

Through it all, Brittany kept up her spirits and her amazing character continued to shine bright.  The 100 stuffed animals Brittany had in her luggage were donated to the Pediatrics’ Ward of the hospital in which her father stayed.  As for her trip journal, the paper was not used to write down memories of a successful adventure, but to re-teach her dad colors, numbers, dates, etc.  Brave Brittany never complained or showed disappointment in not personally getting to see her project completed.  However, the Polish scouts were contacted, and they carried out the distribution parties as originally planned!

Amazing Brittany never gave up, even throughout her father’s five six month health ordeal that followed.  She and her fellow Girl Scouts have set a shining example of good character and community service for others to follow.  Way to go, girls!

"Community service has provided me with many wonderful opportunities.  I have raised money for charities; distributed food at homeless feedings (even once on Christmas Eve at 11:30 p.m. in Hollywood); held garage sales; protested for sensible gun control laws; collected books; recycled; held clothing and toy drives; read books to veterans at the West Los Angeles VA Hospital; and much more.  I did not do these activities for the glory or the praise from others.  I do community service for self-respect and the knowledge that I made a difference in someone's life.

"Throughout my life, I have had amazing adult role models, whose examples have sparked my humanitarian interest. All of these accomplishments would not be possible without the support of my family and friends. They are the 'wind beneath my wings'."

Brittany Roach, age 13

RELATED LINKS:

Troop #852's web site: www.lafn.org/community/gs852/
Girl Scouts Of America web site:  www.girlscouts.org/