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Havre de Grace Teen Supports Harford Community Action Agency with “Crafty Kits”

Bridget Tramontana is a senior at Havre de Grace High School.  Upon graduation, Bridget will attend a four-year college to study Art Education and Art Therapy.  Bridget has been a Girl Scout with Troop 2816 since the first grade.  Almost every girl in her troop has either achieved the Gold Award or is working towards it.

“Gold Award Girl Scouts are the dreamers and the doers who take “make the world a better place” to the next level. The Girl Scout Gold Award is the mark of the truly remarkable—proof that not only can she make a difference, but that she already has.

Seniors and Ambassadors who earn the Gold Award tackle issues that are dear to them and drive lasting change in their communities and beyond. Think of the Gold Award as a key that can open doors to scholarships, preferred admission tracks for college, and amazing career opportunities.”

The issue that is close to Bridget is self-esteem, self-love, and self-awareness.  She hopes that her work with her Gold Award project, using tools based in art therapy, will help improve the aforementioned in groups of people, adults and children, who may be experiencing difficult life circumstances.

Bridget’s will be offered to children participating in Havre de Grace Elementary School’s art therapy club, and also to those seeking assistance at the Harford Community Action Agency.  She may even expand to local senior centers as recommended by a human services professional she met with.  Bridget, along with many volunteers, assembled, filled, and decorated over sixty boxes, all with donated art supplies.  Some supplies are brand new, while others, are being repurposed.

“Art therapy is a distinct discipline that incorporates creative methods of expression through visual art media. Art therapy, as a creative arts therapy profession, originated in the fields of art and psychotherapy and may vary in definition.

Art therapy can be used as a complement to traditional mental health treatment. The aim is to manage behaviors, process feelings, reduce stress and anxiety, and increase self-esteem.”

The base of the kit is a shoe box which has been wrapped in brown paper.  Half of the outside of the kit is decorated while the other half remains a blank canvas for the person who receives the kit.   Finally, the kits are filled with a variety of supplies including paper, color pencils, markers, crayons, pipe cleaners, and stickers to name a few.

Bridget has been working on her project for two years with assistance and encouragement from her troop leaders Terri Hartmann, Heidi Pensell, and Shannon Hitchings.  In addition, she has been mentored by family friend and gifted artist Amy Miller, and has received generous support from her church congregation at Grace United Methodist Church in Aberdeen. She is in the final stages and hopes to complete it by graduation from high school in May 2020.