A Girl Scout’s golden gift: Hampton Academy scores a new softball shed

HAMPTON — Leave it to a Girl Scout to see that an important community project is completed, even in the face of enormous obstacles presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as starting a wildly successful dog-walking business in the process.

Winnacunnet High School sophomore Annabelle Holmes, 16, of Hampton, never gave up in her effort to provide her middle school, Hampton Academy, with a shed to store softball equipment, earning her both the Girl Scout Silver Award and Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest possible honors for Girl Scouts in middle and high school.

Perseverance was one of the important skills Holmes learned, she said. “Just because of how long it took! I knew with the Silver Award it was going to take a year, and then we had COVID and it took three years!”

As a softball player, Holmes wanted to replace the equipment shed at Hampton Academy when the school was renovated and the old shed was removed.

“I started it as my Silver Award in seventh grade, which was just before COVID hit,” she said.

Then everything stopped in March 2020. She and Emily Goupil, a friend and softball teammate, lived through the reconstruction of their school that year, and wanted to improve the facilities for their sport.

“We knew that there had been a very small softball field equipment kind of place, but it really wasn’t good for what we needed it for," she said. "So we’re like, 'why don’t we do this?' We’re a part of softball; we are there all the time. We might as well do something that’s going to benefit us, the community and everything.”

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As they began eighth grade, the pair started working on a way to build a new shed.

“Even though COVID had quieted down, it was still insane trying to buy stuff,” she said. “So it kind of wasn’t working out for us, but I reached out to three places and we finally got somebody to respond. It was our local hardware store, Middleton Lumber in Hampton.”

Whether built from scratch or bought whole, sheds don’t come cheap, and the Girl Scouts had to fund their effort somehow. In the summer of 2021, Holmes’s troop held a car wash, plus Girl Scout Cookie sales contributed to their fund, originally meant to pay for a big troop trip. The pandemic took its toll on the troop, however, and of the 13 girls originally involved, only three stayed through into high school. They agreed to use the funds to support their highest award projects.

“In eighth grade, my mom was like why don’t we just start doing like a dog walking business? Or going to take care of people’s animals?” said Holmes. “So I started it as a low-key thing, like if you go away for the weekend, we can take care of your dog or cat, feed them, walk them. And it ended up becoming this huge, huge thing, where we had like over 20 clients throughout the summer, throughout the winter.”

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Her business netted $3,400 in exchange for 256 hours of pet care.

“An absurd amount!” she said. “We thought we were going to make a couple hundred from the beginning of the summer of 2021 to midsummer of 2022. We didn’t expect that much to come out of it, for sure! I couldn’t be more thankful for it, because it just became this huge thing, and since part of it was going to Girl Scouts, people wanted to help. I was thankful for that. Obviously, because I wouldn’t have gotten to finish my project without that kind of money.”

Andy Carberry of Middleton Lumber then came through for her, offering a fully built shed for half price, including free delivery.

“I remember when he responded back, once he mentioned that, I was like, oh my gosh, that is the biggest lifesaver ever!”

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Because the Girl Scout Silver Award may be achieved by a team of girls in grades 6-8, but the Gold Award is a single Girl Scout honor for those in grades 9-12, both Holmes and Goupil were awarded Silver for the many hours of work they had put in on the project. Because Holmes continued the work and finished the shed, she was approved as a Gold Award Girl Scout.

For a young teen going through the difficulties of the pandemic shutdown, her perseverance paid off in many ways, not just the completion of the shed.

“I definitely learned a lot of things! Even just as far as communicating. I was in eighth grade, and COVID really impacted my social (skills) - just talking people, adults,” she said. “As far as managing money, that was the first amount of income you could say I had, other than babysitting or something like that. Dealing with adults as a kid with money was kind of almost an awkward conversation. I wouldn’t talk directly to them, but if somebody had to pay me back I had to reach out to them.”

She also had to learn presentation skills, appearing before the School Board six times over three years, and found that a supportive team, including her family, made all the difference. Her project advisor, Dave Hoyt of Seacoast Flooring, was able to guide her and helped with the shed’s ramp and ground prep.

“My parents helped me a lot through the process,” she said.

Holmes began Girl Scouts in first grade, and enjoyed the many experiences Girl Scouting offers, including camporees, summer camp, and meaningful, long-lasting friendships. She’s an honor roll student and athlete, playing softball and volleyball. As a sophomore, she’s still a long way from deciding on a career, but plans to go to college and is interested in both neuroscience and political science.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Hampton Academy scores a new softball shed thanks to Hampton Girl Scout