Marion Andrews of Signal Mountain addressed school bullying by working with her guidance counselor to create a positive school environment. She developed a Kindness Campaign project and was named a 2021 Gold Award Girl Scout from Girl Scouts of Southern Appalachians.

Gold Award Girl Scouts are high schoolers who address issues they’re passionate about by planning and implementing a project that produces lasting change in the community and beyond. It is the Girl Scouts’ highest and most prestigious honor.

Marion’s original desire was to reach the student body at Signal Mountain Middle High School. She researched self-love, body positivity, and racism to help identify solutions. She created notes of encouragement to leave around the school, passed out candy as random acts of kindness, designed educational posters, and coordinated speakers. When the pandemic affected in-person school attendance, Andrews created an Instagram account with inspiring quotes and created videos about random acts of kindness.

Knowledge is power, so Marion started by researching topics around bullying and kindness – and kept up her research activities throughout the project. She read books on positivity, self-image, and racism; listened to podcasts about the physiological impacts of bullying on children; talked to teachers and guidance counselors about the issues surrounding bullying; watched a documentary on bullying; and watched TED Talks on positivity and kindness. 

Marion writing positive messages on Post-it notes. 

She purchased lots of candy, Post-it notes, and posterboard for her project and paid for it all by doing chores and babysitting. She even used some of the money she received for her birthday. 

Marion wrote compliments on the notes and created business cards with positive messages and planned events to hand them out. She also placed the Post-it compliments on a board and encouraged students to take a compliment off and give it to someone else. She handed out lots of candy and designed and put up several informational and inspirational posters. Teachers approached her to congratulate her on the work she was doing.

Some of the posters Marion created. 

When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, school was closed, and Marion had to miss some activities she had planned. She quickly pivoted and decided to carry out her positive mission of kindness on Instagram through an account that shared positive messages. It also became a way to expand her audience

Through more than 91 hours spent on her Gold Award project, Marion kept her goal in focus. “My goal for the project was to inform people of the importance of kindness between each other.” Marion also learned some valuable skills such as how to give a sincere compliment and reconfirmed a trait about herself. “I am a very driven person when I’m passionate about something,” she shared.

Going forward, school administrators and counselors have agreed to put up her project posters each year during kindness month and pass management of the inspirational Instagram account to underclassmen.

Congratulations, Marion! Visit girlscoutcsa.org to learn more about the Girl Scouts.   

A hallway bulletin board covered in kind Post-its that students can take and pass along to someone else to brighten their day.

Positive Post-its located outside the guidance counselor’s office.