QUEEN CREEK, AZ — A group of East Valley Girl Scouts is partially to thank for a renovated outdoor space at a medical center and the journey of how they got to a ribbon-cutting ceremony took a lot more than just selling Thin Mints.
Kristie Porter, one of the girl’s mothers who worked in the ICU during the height of the pandemic, described her day-to-day as “very dark.”
“Probably the worst experience of my career. I’ve been an occupational therapist for 19 years,” Porter said.
When patients and medical staff were working long days with no end in sight, Troop 3632 heard personal stories and saw the toll the pandemic had taken on those working at the Mountain Vista Medical Center.
The troop is made up of Kayla Porter, Addie Bernier, Isabella Ronning, Chloe Copeland, Ally Small, Lizzy Small, and Madi Roberts.
“I think we all saw that had a pretty drastic mental effect,” said Kayla.
The teen girls made signs of encouragement and posted them around the hospital. Over the holidays, the girls would sing through masks loud enough for those on the other side of the window to hear.
The girls noticed that a common outdoor space at the hospital, used at the time to be a retreat for patients, wasn’t much to look at, they say.
“It wasn’t that uplifting. It was just dirt,” said Ally.
At the time of the pandemic, fixing the landscaping for the hospital was the last thing on the minds of those working inside.
Troop 3632 saw it as a new challenge to make a lasting impact.
Troop leader Darcy Small said to reach a financial goal of thousands of dollars, the girls got “WAY out of their comfort zone to ask for donations.”
So, in addition to slinging boxes of cookies, the girls got permission from Evening Entertainment Group to put QR codes on the tables of Sandbar Mexican Grill. The code streamlined donations from a patron’s phone.
The girls were able to raise thousands of dollars on their own, but one of the patients who saw the signs and heard them sing helped them reach their goal of over $30,000.
The girls who helped bring a little light during a dark time found a good name for the newly renovated space – Sunshine Therapy.
“It shows that even though we’re younger, it can leave a lasting impact,” said Ally.