Three Girl Scouts From Hampton Bays Earn Silver Award for Building Benches at St. Joseph's Villa

The view overlooking Shinnecock Bay from St. Joseph’s Villa in Hampton Bays is heavenly, but for what seemed like forever, the visiting nuns were not able to sit, chat and relax in that majestic setting.

That is, until three Girl Scouts from Girl Scout Troop 475, Sarah Chami, Brianna Farrell and Caitlyn Lupia, all 14, put their heads together and devised a plan to build four wooden benches, from scratch, as a project to earn the Silver Award, a prestigious Girl Scout honor aimed at completing a community service project to better a Scout’s neighborhood.

The girls have been working hard to earn the Silver Award, learning how to construct four benches out of lumber and hardware with power tools and blueprints.

The Silver Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette can receive. It’s a national award that represents the time, leadership, creativity and effort that girls contribute to making their communities better, and requires at least 50 hours per Girl Scout upon completion, Laura Farrell, the troop’s leader, and Brianna’s mother, explained as the girls were lifting and placing the benches at various locations at St. Joseph’s Villa on a recent rainy Tuesday after school.

“The girls came one weekend to work with me in the garden,” Sister Kerry Handal, C.S.J., one of the coordinators at St. Joseph’s Villa, explained of her original meeting with the troop. “We started talking, and we brainstormed what the need was — and the rest is history.”

The relationship between the three girls and Sister Handal started about two years ago, when the girls helped her harvest strawberries and garlic in the Villa’s garden. “It’s a teaching garden,” Sister Handal said, adding that they have been able to donate over 1,000 pounds of produce to the St. Rosalie’s parish outreach in Hampton Bays.

Girl Scouts is a youth organization for girls. The group promotes confidence, leadership, entrepreneurship and active citizenship through activities involving camping, community service, learning first aid and earning badges by acquiring practical skills. The Scouts’ achievements are recognized with a series of special awards, including the Girl Scout Gold, Silver and Bronze awards.

Sarah, Brianna and Caitlyn, all freshmen at Hampton Bays High School, chose to build benches after learning that the retired nuns who visit the Villa haven’t been able to enjoy the grounds as much as they’d like. The girls heard this from Sister Handal and were quick to decide on their Silver Award project.

The girls built three standard-size benches and one smaller love seat-style bench for two people. All the benches include side tables, and the love seat has cushions and an umbrella, which the girls paid for using some of their troop funds, which they earned from selling Girl Scout cookies.

While nuns visit the Villa throughout the summer for retreats, St. Joseph’s Villa also has a large outreach program for empowering women and self-help recovery groups all throughout the year.

“We had a couple of failures before actually getting the lumber,” Brianna said. “There were places that said, ‘No.’” This set them back from their original September 30 deadline. Luckily, the girls were able to have a small extension to buy them more time.

The hardware, nails, screws and bolts were all donated by Shinnecock Hardware in Hampton Bays.

The Home Depot in Riverhead donated most of the wood but ran out of the specific lumber the girls needed, so they had to look for more. Luckily, Speonk Lumber donated the rest.

It was not an easy task, though, the girls explained, since they never knew how expensive lumber and hardware was. The design plans for the benches were donated, and Sarah’s father, Zach Chami, educated the girls on the use of each tool, and taught them how to read the plans to construct the benches.

“The jigsaw was tough to use at first,” Caitlyn said. “You have to hold it straight, and your hand is right next to it.” The girls said there was a safety device around the blade so they could not cut their fingers.

It was a learning curve for sure, the girls agreed, but the trio set their minds to something, worked very hard and eventually achieved their goal.

“I’m very proud of them all,” Farrell, the troop leader, said while setting up the umbrella on the love seat overlooking Shinnecock Bay as the girls placed the bench down and it began to drizzle.

There was a lot of leg work — going door to door collecting the donated pieces for the benches, receiving blueprints, setting up a space to build the benches, and, most difficult, learning how to use the power tools. Now, they will send in the final project with a final report and with pictures of the benches. All the girls in Suffolk County will go to a ceremony this winter to receive their Silver Award.

“It’s fun. We have to be serious at times, like this, for example. We have our fun times where we can joke around,” Caitlyn said.

“We gained the hours that we needed and the skills,” Brianna said. “We learned basic carpentry skills. I’ve never used a drill before.”

The girls’ vests are filled with colorful badges, which they earn upon completion of a community service. For example, one badge, Caitlyn explained, was for the “Take Action Project.” For that, the girls were a part of a town cleanup day. They picked up garbage across the town and at Ponquogue Beach.

Another badge, Sarah explained, was earned through meeting with other Girl Scouts and learning about social media and how to stay safe on the internet.

Another was earned by placing American flags at the Calverton National Cemetery on Memorial Day for veterans.

The girls sold 500 boxes of cookies each last year, and received a special badge for that, too.

“When a troop sells 2,000 cookies, they get a special prize,” Brianna said, adding that the prize was a T-shirt, but also the pride of a job well done.

A Yogi Bear badge was for a camping trip at Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park. On that trip, Farrell took the girls food shopping, and there was a terrestrial downpour, so they returned to find that the tent they’d worked so hard to put up looked like it was in the middle of a lake.

Luckily, there was no hole in the tent. All their camping neighbors helped to lift the tent and transfer it onto dry land.

“We always have a story everywhere we go,” Farrell laughed.

For their “Under the Sea” badge, the girls taught younger scouts how to make a sea-themed craft, Sarah said while pointing at the badge with the fish and seahorse.

Every two weeks or so, the girls have a troop meeting to brainstorm other community service projects.

In November, the girls will participate in the “Hall of Trees.” Girl Scouts will accept 50 Christmas trees from 50 troops. Each troop will get together and have two days to decorate a tree to be donated to a nursing home, veterans’ home or transitional housing.

In December, the girls are slated to participate in Wreaths Across America at Calverton National Cemetery by placing a wreath on the graves to pay homage to veterans.

“We knew of each other before Girl Scouts, but we’re never super close,” Caitlyn said while the girls agreed. “It’s given me something to look forward to,” Sarah added.

“I am thrilled. Next summer, the Sisters will be incredibly happy that they have some new benches that they’ll be able to sit and enjoy the view,” Sister Handal said as the girls finished adjusting the bench, cushions and umbrella. “The goal was that as they walk down the roadway, they’d have various places to be able to stop and take a seat and chat.”

This probably won’t lead to a career in carpentry, the girls joked, but the troop members agreed that building these four benches brought them closer as friends and as a team.

Next up, the girls will tackle the Gold Award, which is an individual project totaling 90 hours. For now, they’ll keep volunteering in the community — and brainstorming.