Swampscott High junior’s Girl Scouts project to provide art supplies for students in Haiti

SWAMPSCOTT – Swampscott teen Nora Walker said when she first went to Haiti on a youth group project in 2011, the streets of Port-au-Prince were lined with trash and any open spaces were covered with tent communities.”It was hard to see it all,” said Walker. “It’s really sad because they are still trying to rebuild from the earthquake. I wanted to do so much more but it’s not easy to make a big impact in one week.”Three years after the earthquake and one year after that initial visit, the Swampscott High School junior is getting her chance to make a difference as a part of her Girl Scouts of America Gold Award project. For the next three weeks, Walker will be collecting donated art supplies left in drop boxes at Swampscott and Nahant locations to send to Haiti for students to use at the new Mission for Hope School that will open at the end of January.The Gold Award is an 80-hour community service project similar to the Boy Scouts of America Eagle Scout Project that will mark the culmination of Walker’s time with the organization. During Walker’s trip to Haiti in 2011, she said she saw workers laying the foundation for the school, and something clicked for her over the summer to help as a part of her project.The school will serve 800 students in grades preschool though high school, but Walker said when she spoke to the principal of the school to find out what they would need, the response was for preschool art supplies.”I think that’s really great because down there they may not have as many art supplies being donated,” said Walker. “Now the kids can use their imagination and have the opportunity to create art if they want to.”In addition to supplies like boxed crayons, markers, pencils, glitter, glue/glue sticks, construction paper, scissors, tempera powder paints, paint brushes, rulers, pipe cleaners, card stock, protractors, pens, notebooks, pencil sharpeners, erasers, index cards, index card holders, highlighters and colored pencils, Walker said she will try to send microscopes, petri dishes and scientific tools to the school when the drive is over in February.Walker returns to Haiti this April during her school vacation, she will interview the students at the school to measure the impact of the art supplies and hold an art show to display their work.Walker said Girl Scouts typically choose to complete their Gold Award projects within the local community, but she said if she was going to put 80 hours of work into something, she wanted it to be founded in passion.”I could have easily done something within the community,” she said. “But I wanted to do something I really cared about. Yes, it’s not easy, but they are all difficult projects. It’s a lot harder to connect with a different country and get supplies there. It’s a lot of work. But, we are going to make it happen.”The drop boxes, which are decorated by fellow Ocean Bay Girl Scout Troops 60103 (Daisies), 68001 (Brownies), and 60687 (Seniors/Ambassadors), are located at the Stanley School, Clark School, Swampscott High School, Swampscott Middle School and the Johnson School in Nahant, along with the Swampscott and Nahant town halls, libraries and post offices, where donations for new and gently used art supplies can be left until Feb. 1.Kait Taylor can be reached at [email protected].