Queen City Rotary Club
2010 Service to Youth Award – Christine Lowry

There are thousands of trained and dedicated leaders in Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains who work to build girls of courage, confidence, and character. But helping girls reach their full potential has a deeper meaning for one special troop leader who has been a mentor to 150 girls over the past 24 years. Christine Lowry is the leader of a Cadet troop, has assisted two other troops while their leaders completed their training, and founded another troop of 17 very special girls several years ago from an Easter Seals residential facility in Manchester.
 
It takes a special person to work with emotionally, socially, mentally and physically challenged children. As someone who works at Easter Seals, Christine is certainly one of those special people.

She demonstrates extra dedication and patience in helping these girls experience the fun and friendship of Girl Scouting. This troop of girls, with a variety of disabilities and problems, is one of a kind in Manchester.  It requires extraordinary compassion, patience, creativity and flexibility to deliver a quality Girl Scout leadership experience to these girls, most of who are wards of the state, and would otherwise not have access to the program.

The girls gain confidence as they earn badges and learn skills, as all Girl Scouts do.  But when this troop has an awards ceremony – planned and run by the girls, since Girl Scouting is a progression of girl-led activities – it’s an extra cause for celebration, because they have overcome such obstacles to earn that colorful insignia. 

These girls love and respect Christine, and know and appreciate the tremendous depth and breadth of what she does for them and with them. For most of these girls, their Girl Scout troop is the only community they have.
Last year Christine worked hard to ensure that one girl received campership funds to enable her to go to camp for the very first time, and be among other girls without the stigma of being challenged.  The girls have told Christine that they are happy to be able to do something that “normal girls do.”

Throughout the years, Christine has inspired girls to achieve the highest awards in Girl Scouts and to work hard to reach their goals. These girls have completed as many as 50 hours of community service to earn such awards.  This year, Christine’s troop set a goal to travel to Savannah, Georgia in 2011 to visit the birthplace of our founder, Juliette Gordon Low.  They have worked hard to raise money for this trip and have begun planning the details.

Christine sees the potential in all girls, even when they don’t believe in themselves, and gives them a future with a foundation of Girl Scout values. She truly understands and models the Girl Scout mission to “build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world” – and Manchester – “a better place.”
            
It is an honor to award this year’s Queen City Rotary Club Service to Youth Award to Christine Lowry.