Submitted by Maria Breien
On Wednesday, September 19, 2018, Senior Girl Scout Ashley Rose Breien of Troop #40537 in Clark was proud to present her “Musical Therapy Cart” to the Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside. The project earned Ashley the Girl Scout Silver Award, which is the second highest award recognition that can be acquired by a Girl Scout.
Ashley is in her tenth year of Girl Scouts. She is an aspiring singer/songwriter and is a student at the Academy for Performing Arts in Scotch Plains. Ashley wanted to share her musical talents and show how music has benefited her during her life. For the past year while fundraising for the project, she worked many hours educating the public on the benefits of musical therapy. During that time she also researched which instruments and rolling cart would suit the children at the hospital best.
With the help of the staff at Sam Ash Music in Plainfield and her middle-school music teacher Flora Pollack, she selected 37 instruments to include in the cart. The musical cart will service the hospital’s Community Outreach Program as well as the children in the Long-Term Care Unit.
After her presentation, Ashley was able to meet some of the long-term care kids, show them what instruments were on the cart, and was even able to sing a few songs and play the Ukulele for them. Ashley plans to continue to work with the staff at the hospital to keep updating the cart as well as return to the hospital and work with the children as a volunteer teaching them music.
(above) Senior Girl Scout Ashley Rose Breien of Troop #40537 in Clark with her “Musical Therapy Cart” that she gave to the Children’s Specialized Hospital in Mountainside. This project earned her the Silver Award.
