The Girl Scouts of Central and Southern New Jersey, in partnership with Amerigroup New Jersey, unveiled a pair of new murals at the organization’s Cherry Hill headquarters on Oct. 29.
Each mural will welcome every Girl Scout, leader and community stakeholder as they enter the headquarters, as it represents new ways in which Girl Scouts are prepared for a lifetime of leadership.
“At Amerigroup, we understand the importance of equipping our young people with the skills and support systems needed to help them grow into healthy adults, which is why we’re proud to partner with the Girl Scouts,” said Teresa Hursey, president of Amerigroup New Jersey Medicaid Plan.
The murals’ respective messages were clear: cookies and camaraderie is just fine, but there is a world to explore and a difference to be made.
“Fundamentally, the Girl Scout experience is based upon fun, age-appropriate activities that help girls discover who they are, where their talents lie, and what they care most about,” said Ginny Marino, chief executive officer of GSCSNJ.
“Scouting helps girls discover themselves and their abilities through skill-building activities, opportunities to try new things, making connections with others, and by developing projects to make their communities a better place.”
The main mural encompasses one whole side of one wall in a conference room. It depicts the expansion of new badge programs, showing both girls in action as well as physical representations of those badges for achievements like cybersecurity, coding and citizen scientist – all of which align with the organization’s mission to ensure that girls have opportunities locally and nationally in the future.
“You see our commitment to getting girls outside, to having them explore both from a scientific perspective and from an environmental perspective. So transforming our spaces, our training room and headquarters with these inspiring and vibrant murals … is an exciting part of how we are working to bring our brand to life,” Marino said.
Underscoring the points made by Girl Scout principals, Jim Beach, representative for the 6th Legislative District, related his involvement as his wife, daughter and granddaughter have all been involved previously. He also contributed a story of his own from his early teaching days. The anecdote involved his spying a young student from his inner-city Camden school, who resorted to pocketing a milk carton to give to his little sister at home.
The additional artistic creation, placed in the hallway and which spells out the word “girl,” with positive and inspirational adjectives, “is really our brand promise and commitment to girls, of all that they would get by participating in the Girl Scout leadership experience,” Marino added.
Looking forward to 2020, a new training room will be introduced as Girl Scouts prepare for a new program year featuring new badges, exceptional experiences and an updated facility.
Jennifer Romond, chairperson of the board of directors of GSCSNJ, who officially led the ribbon cutting on the wall mural, said: “This place has never looked so nice. I’ve been here since my daughter was a little girl in Girl Scouts and this building has transformed so much in the past couple of years.”
or more information on the local chapter and its mission, visit https://www.gscsnj.org/.
