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Girl Scout earns Gold Award

HAMPDEN Elisabeth Hatch from the Hampden Unit of the Pioneer Valley Girl Scouts earned her Gold Award this Spring. The Gold Award is the highest achievment that can be earned by a Girl Scout, requires a minimum of 60 hours of individual work, and the honor is equivalent to the Boy Scout's Eagle award.

Elisabeth has been in scouting for 13 years, starting as a Daisy and then a Brownie in the Pine Branch Unit in Springfield. She joined the Hampden Unit in 1997 as a Junior Scout and earned her Silver Award as a Cadette Scout in 2002 for gathering members of the community together to repair and paint park benches and bleachers.

She has been an active member of the community, volunteering her time with the town, her church and Catholic Scouting. Elisabeth writes for the "Smoke Signal" (Minnechaug's School Newspaper) and is an intern at The Reminder with several published stories to her credit. She has participated in two years of soccer, two years of gymnastics, and has been a part of the winter and spring track teams at Minnechaug, while working very hard to manintain an honor roll status for all four years.

In order to accheive her Gold Award, Elisabeth is in the process of establishing a library at the Mary Lyon Nursing Center in Hampden. The community has been extremely generous and helpful with this project. Vinnie Zick from Springfield Lumber Company donated the wood for the book shelves and Paul Hunter from Hunter Woodwork made four beautiful shelves to hold the books.

Generous donations were made by local businesses, Monson Savings Bank and the Lions Club to help purchase books with large print, books on tape and tape recorders. Many residents donated books to help fill the shelves

The Grand Opening of the Library in the Mary Lyon Nursing Center was April 30.