Deer Lakes

School District

Girl Scouts unveil Buddy Benches at Curtisville, East Union

Congratulations to Natalie Naugle, Tessa Lovich, Melanie Brown, and Alexis Hoburg who will soon earn their Silver Award in Girl Scouts. 


The quartet of Deer Lakes freshmen recently installed and unveiled Buddy Benches at the East Union and Curtisville playgrounds, a project that began nearly three years ago. Girl Scout Troop 52573 is led by Heather Naugle and Destinee Lovich.


“A Buddy Bench is a bench where kids can sit during recess if they are feeling left out or if they just want to make a new friend,” Natalie said. “The purpose is to help reduce the amount of kids who feel left out or lonely during the school year. We hope to change the way kids look at school recess if they are often separated from their peers or if they don’t have someone to play with.”


The silver award is the second highest rank in Girl Scouts. The girls decided on the project after reflecting on their time in school.


“I think we’ve all had times where we were lonely and we put ourselves in the shoes of kids who might feel the same way sometimes,” Melanie said. “We hope kids at the schools will be encouraged to be inclusive when someone does sit down on the bench, signaling that they’re feeling lonely.”


The scouts are in the process of making a video, which Tessa is taking the lead on, to explain the Buddy Benches to students. 


“We will all participate and play different roles in the video to show and explain how the Buddy Benches will work,” Tessa said. “We’ve thought about how it can be done in a way that will show activities around the playground and how to approach and ask someone on the Buddy Bench to join in.”


Each student has to complete 50 hours for the Silver Award, which is why they volunteered for different responsibilities for the duration of the project. Natalie took the lead in planning the event to introduce the benches to the community. Melanie took the lead in communications. And Alexis took the lead in building the benches.


“I’m really happy that we are about to finish everything, and I’m looking forward to seeing the kids use it,” Alexis said. “That’s the exciting part, knowing it will make a difference for younger kids. That has always been important to us.”

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