Connections: An Interview With Kalena Slaton - Girl Scout Cadette

Terrarium: a Mother/Daughter Project

That everyone can contribute something useful or valuable to the well-being of his or her family or community, no matter their age, background or specific talents, is a fundamental theme here at  With Intent.

For this Connections interview, I reached out to Kalena Slaton, the daughter of a good friend of mine. I wanted to learn more about her involvement with the Girl Scouts and her recent “bridging” ceremony. The Girl Scouts, founded in 1912 by Juliette Gordon Low, is an organization affording young ladies in grades K-12, opportunities to make new friends, build confidence and character, learn new skills and help make the world a better place through community service and other activities.

Read on to find out more about Kalena’s “bridging” ceremony, what involvement in the Girl Scouts has meant to her, and how all of that relates to living with intent:

So Kalena, how long have you been a Girl Scout?
Kalena Slaton: I have been a Girl Scout for approximately seven years.

Wow, that's a long time!  How did you come to be involved with them?
Slaton: I was five years old in kindergarten at Colson Elementary School, and they had a table with information about Girl Scouts. I was interested and wanted to join so I asked my mother to sign me up and I joined the “Daisies”. Daisies are the first level of Girl Scouts. My Mom was a Girl Scout.

Ahh…so your Mom was a Girl Scout too! Did that play a part in your wanting to be one or did you only find that out later on?
Slaton: Yeah, I think I might have known, but yet don’t remember if I did. I’m not sure if it influenced me, but I think my mom’s knowledge about past Girl Scouts helps me today.

I know that you recently "bridged". What does that mean and what did you have to do to achieve that?
Slaton: "Bridging" is the term used in the moving up from one level to the next in Girl Scouts, for example, Daises to Brownies to Juniors to Cadettes.

In the bridging ceremony, me and my scouting sisters cross over a small bridge as a symbol of moving on from Junior scouts to Cadettes. Each girl must show up to Girl Scout meetings and participate in all group activities including community services in order to bridge and earn badges.

So you kind of come to rely and support each other as well as your community through your participation in the activities. . .
Slaton: Yes, we work together to help ourselves and the community (especially the community). Helping it, we get badges to earn cool awards.

Tell me a little more about the kinds of skills you have learned through your involvement with the Girl Scouts.
Slaton: I learned about setting up community projects and events through planning a party we had for Juliette Gordon Lows' birthday. She founded the Girl Scouts. I’ve also learned about event planning— our troop planned a Breast Cancer Awareness event— fundraising and public speaking, and  participated in planning a sleepover during my “Finding Common Ground” badge teaching.

That sounds interesting. What is the “Finding Common Ground” badge? And what are some other badges you have earned?
Slaton: It is basically about how to make decisions so everyone can be happy with the decision you made. Before I taught my badge, we learned the Trees badge, which is about trees and more of what they do for us.

Those two badges sound fantastic! The ability to help people feel comfortable with decisions when working in a group is a really good skill to have.  It helps us to be resilient. I also like trees! I don't think people really appreciate all the great work they do for us.

So, would you recommend other kids participate in the Girl Scouts or an organization like them? If so, why?
Slaton: Yes! I would recommend others to join Girl Scouts or other organizations like it, because:

• it helps you to learn more about your community and make new friends
• it teaches respect for yourself and others
• it teaches teamwork, leadership and making lots of fun crafts

Getting to know others in your community, the teamwork and leadership involved in working together, and most importantly, respect for yourself and others as well as the environment is exactly what living with intent is all about. You’ve also shown that it’s never too early for kids to learn these skills so they can start giving back to their community!

Kalena, thanks so much for taking the time to chat with us here at With Intent about your participation with the Girl Scouts!

~~~~

Kalena Slaton is twelve years old and lives with her parents in Brandon, Florida.  She is in the sixth grade and attends  Orange Grove Middle Magnet School for the Arts in Tampa, Florida.

Skill Set: How Does Your Garden Grow? Part 1 - Welcome to My Indoor Edible Paradise!

 


. . .with silver bells, and cockle shells. . .And pretty maids all in a row.






In Building Blocks of Intent (Pt. 1), we looked at the importance of developing or refining different skills in leading a life of intent. I refer to them as “life skills”— those directly related to meeting basic human needs, such as

• food and nourishment
• shelter
• clothing
• maintenance of basic health and well-being

With that in mind, one of my goals this year was to do just that. So, this past January I enrolled in an introductory gardening class through the New York Botanical Garden’s adult education program. I had always wanted to try my hand at gardening, but just never got around to doing it until now.

You’re probably wondering “January! Why would anyone take a gardening class then?? What kind of gardening could you possibly do in the dead of winter especially with all that snow we got…???” You are not alone! Everyone I told about the class asked these same questions. However, there’s quite a bit that goes into achieving the beautiful (or edible) end result that most people associate with gardening, and we spent the time covering fundamental theories and concepts such as

• the basic parts of a plant how they function
• soil health & structure
• organic gardening techniques
• pest control
• basic garden tools
• plant selection and care
• propagation and pruning
• general site considerations when planning your garden

all done from a nice, warm and cozy classroom!

Also, you may not realize it, but there's a life cycle to gardening, so there's always something to be done year round.  In fact, our final course assignment was to take what we learned and create a simple plan covering a year of maintenance and planning for the garden of our choice (you can see my final report here). The tail end of winter is a key time for indoor seed starting, so your plants will be ready to go into the ground come spring. Then of course, there’s the main growing season from spring, through the summer, and depending on what you’re growing, even into the fall. In the late fall it’s time to begin preparing your garden for winter…clearing out dead growth, sprucing up the beds and so on. Something else you may not know is that there are things you can plant in the late fall at the end of the season, also known as “cover crops” or “green manure” (e.g. ryegrass, winter rye, clovers, oats, buckwheat, etc), which help protect and prepare the soil for spring when the cycle begins anew! This provides ground cover that helps prevent soil erosion, replaces nutrients depleted during the growing season (e.g. nitrogen), and helps with weed suppression as well as pest control.

Unlike most of my classmates, I don’t currently have access to any outdoor gardening space (not even a terrace!), so I will be adapting what I learned for an indoor garden. Another challenge for me is that I live in a small apartment with limited space.

But, be those things as they may, I am starting with the picture on the left and intend to move towards the picture on the right!

And, after listening to a podcast by Erika Harris of Empathic Writer, during which she talked about her grandfather and his talent for turning his back yard into paradise (go to Episode 001: Say the Things You Want to Hear in the World and jump to the 00:03:09 to 00:03:30 mark), I was further inspired to create my own Indoor Edible Garden Paradise.

As described in my garden maintenance plan, my goals are modest. I plan to get started with some herbs and other edibles (cilantro, scallions and rainbow chard) suited to my particular site constraints.  I have some seeds I purchased from the Hudson Valley Seed Library. I originally bought them because the outer packets were so beautiful, never thinking to actually plant them, but now I figure “Why not!”

However, I also have a Plan B, just in case! I purchased a Burpee “Culinary Herb Garden All-in-One Kit”.  According to the package it includes “everything you need to grow 5 delicious herbs”

     > 5 seed packets – parsley, cilantro, chives, basil and oregano
     > 3 containers and a watering tray
     > growing pellets
     > instructions
     > recipes!

So, we’ll see how it goes and which approach works for me. I hope you’ll join me on this journey, and be inspired to try it yourself! If I can do it, I’m sure you can too!
 

Changing Your Intent

Get Skilled: What You Can Do Now!

1. Pick a new life skill that you would like to learn whether it’s gardening, sewing, cooking, first aid, fishing, or whatever tickles your fancy. Your local weekly paper is an excellent resource for discovering workshops and classes that might be going on in your community.


2. Tell us about what you've decided here or start a discussion on the With Intent Facebook or Google+ page.

Three Building Blocks of Intent: Health, Knowledge & Skills

Figure 1

In last month’s five-part “Living With Intent” series we examined three underlying philosophies for creating an eco-intentional lifestyle: permaculture, cradle-to-cradle and feng shui. This week we’ll turn our attention to several basic building blocks you can use to expand on that foundation to begin creating your own unique approach to living with intent. Obviously, there are an infinite number of blocks from which to choose and as many ways to combine them. However, I’ve chosen six, as illustrated in Figure 1, that I believe will be particularly useful for this purpose.  Three are described below (health & fitness, knowledge and skills) and then, next week we'll look at the other three (spirituality, philanthropy and arts & culture).

1. Health & Fitness

You have only to read a newspaper or turn on the television to be inundated with the latest news of the obesity and diabetes epidemics, as well as the associated cardio-vascular conditions plaguing today’s society.  However, we can each take steps to avoid or reverse that trend for ourselves by increasing our dietary intake of fresh fruits and vegetables and reducing processed foods and red meat, which all tend to be high in fat, sugar and salt. Does this mean we need to eliminate all traces of these items from our diet?  Of course not!
However, a more healthy balance among them is probably needed.

Several alternatives to the supermarket, for purchasing fresh fruits and vegetables, include farmers’ markets, participation in a community garden or CSA membership (community supported agriculture).  As community based solutions, they're a little more environmentally friendly and have the added benefit of helping to strengthen local/regional economic systems.  Here in NYC, Just Food and GrowNYC are just two of the many organizations providing information about these and other aspects of the local food movement.

Getting more exercise is also critical to improving our health.  Did you know that gardening, besides being a valuable skill and just plain fun, can also be a great form of exercise? Yup! All that bending, digging and hauling soil around gives you a real workout! This is another great advantage to participating in a community garden, if you can.

Alternative methods of getting around town, such as cycling or walking, can spice up a drab exercise routine, while reducing your carbon footprint.  With the growing popularity of bike sharing programs across the country, cycling is becoming an increasingly viable option for many more people.

As for walking, you can pretty much get started whenever you want.  It doesn't really require any fancy, expensive equipment, or special expertise.  All you need is comfortable clothing and a good pair of sneakers, and it can be suitable for people of all ages and various fitness levels.

So put on your walking shoes or hop on your bike and check out your local green market! Or. . .do something else.  As long as it gets you out of the house and moving!

2. Knowledge

They say knowledge is power.  Whether it’s increasing awareness of what’s going on in your community, learning who to turn to for help if you need it, or gaining a better understanding of the public policy, laws and other regulations impacting your neighborhood, having this type of information will help you connect and figure out how to get more involved.

3. Skills

Knowing how to do things goes hand-in-hand with knowing what's going on. It also supports personal and community resilience.  I'm sure you’re probably saying to yourself “I’m already on overload. My brain can’t take in one more thing!”  And, unfortunately, in today’s information intense society, there always seems to be something new to learn or figure out.  So where to begin?  The list below is by no means exhaustive, but it’s a good starting point:

Figure 2

These skills would be great to have under any circumstances, but are particularly useful in the wake of a catastrophic events or situations where critical infrastructure or power/energy sources have been disrupted or have failed altogether, over extended periods, as in Hurricane Sandy.  They will allow you to begin meeting in part, some of the basic necessities of daily living a little more quickly. The good news is that you don’t have to learn all of these things yourself!  You can build a network of other people who have the skills you lack.

Therein lies the strengthand beauty of community— helping and supporting one another, AND the essence of what it means to be resilient— the existence of mutually beneficial inter-dependencies among community members.

How can you go about getting the necessary training to boost your knowledge and skills?  Well, there are many options available.  For highly technical skills (e.g. medical or the trades) a rigorous, formal, degree or vocational program might be necessary.  If you are building on existing skills, a certificate program or workshop may fit the bill.  For skills like sewing, gardening, or basic composting, informal classes (or series of classes) will probably be fine.  Many local organizations and governmental entities often sponsor free or low-cost events providing such instruction.  Join their mailing lists to keep abreast of their activities.  You can also visit your local library and research topics of interest.  Finally, quiet as it’s kept, your local weekly newspaper is an invaluable, tool for getting the 411 on these and many other things going on in your community, and I’ll be discussing it in depth in a future post.

These first three building blocks have been of a practical nature.  The next three speak more to several psychological aspects of creating a life of intent.

Stay tuned and see you then!