Editor’s note: Each day this week the Dispatch will profile a community volunteer as part of National Volunteer Week. National Volunteer Week, April 10-16, is about recognizing volunteers and encouraging others to make a difference in the community.
Among Lowndes County’s newest crop of volunteers is 7-year-old Teriah Hamilton.
The first grader at Sale Elementary joined her school’s Girl Scouts in January. In that time, Teriah has already sold several hundred dollars worth of Girl Scout cookies, according to her mother, Tamiko Hamilton.
Teriah has been selling the organization’s famous cookies to friends and neighbors, though she admits her mother has helped her out by selling to her coworkers.
“Because I don’t work,” Teriah explained.
The money she has raised helps fund the Girl Scouts organization which has helped girls like her learn skills and become involved in their communities for more than 100 years. Teriah hasn’t been in the program long enough to get heavily involved in volunteering and other activities yet, but says she has already met friends, made crafts and done other activities and decided on her favorite Girl Scout cookie (Trefoils).
The reason she likes Girl Scouts is mainly for the crafts, she says. At each meeting, the girls make different objects, from harmonicas to model cars to Mother’s Day gifts. Teriah proudly showed the sleep mask she made for Hamilton at her last meeting.
The mask was purple and said “Love” in glittery letters. Teriah explained how she filled the mask with cotton and then decorated it to give to her mother.
“We are nice to each other,” she said. “And then we do other things like building a car, making a mask and all that other stuff.”
Hamilton said the family is planning a move to Brandon soon, but she has no intention of letting Teriah’s activities stop. She wants to enroll Teriah in a Girl Scouts troop that gives her more activities and keeps her involved in the community.
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