This month, Park City girl scout Alli Macuga hopes to earn the Girl Scout Gold Award for her project at the Summit County Children’s Justice Center. The center is a converted home in the Snyderville Basin and is the first place children go during abuse investigations.
Macuga, is 19 and a Winter School graduate. She takes classes at CU Boulder. She chose the project after contacting Summit County Attorney Margaret Olson for advice. She wanted to create a space where children who have experienced trauma and violence would feel safe and comfortable.
Before the building containing the children’s justice center was converted for that purpose, it was a home - And a zebra lived on the property. Macuga said she channeled her artistic skills to assemble and paint a bookshelf, reading table, and chairs. And with her artwork, she resurrected the story of the exotic animal that lived there at one time.
“I made a bookshelf and a kid's table,” Macuga said. “When they come in, they'll feel more at ease so they can read books and sit at the table. I decided to paint a zebra on the table and put some colorful stripes on like the chairs and the edge of the table just to really give it a nice feeling of like not to be scared when kids come in but like have that little homey feeling.”
Macuga is helping solicit book donations for the center as well. She’ll deliver furniture this week and hopes to have her final meeting with the girl scout council, which if the project is approved will earn her the Girl Scout Gold Award.
“The Girl Scout Gold Award project is the final part of being a girl scout and it's a way of really reaching out to the community and showing what you can do to help and just to prove how much you've gone through being a girl scout,” Macuga said.
In addition to finishing up her Gold Award work, she is busy training with the U.S. Ski and Snowboard Team. She was named to the Moguls D Team last season and has earned four NorAm podiums and two Junior World Championships.
