Self-reflections earn East Meadow's Troop 1218 a Silver Award

Mirror, mirror on the wall... what does your reflection make you think about yourself?

The girls of East Meadow Girl Scout Troop 1218 asked the same thing, and are aiming to change the way people perceive themselves. Troop 1218 partnered with the Broadway Common in Hicksville and created a “Reflection Wall,” to earn their Silver Award.

The Silver Award is the highest award a cadette can earn, and it gives them the chance to show the community that they are a leader who is organized, determined, and dedicated to improving the community, according to GirlScouts.org. A cadette is a rank in Girl Scouts for girls in grades sixth, seventh and eighth.

Troop members include Sophia Cardali, Tallulah Costello, Miley Francois, Ebadat Khan, Eden Martinez, Soliel Reyes and Natalia Vance, who are under the supervision of troop leaders, Jeannie DiLillo Cardali and Tamara Vance.

Troop leader Cardali explained what the “Reflection Wall” means to her, not only as a mother, but a woman in today’s society.

“It’s easy to point the finger and not take responsibility, but that doesn’t serve anyone in a positive way,” Cardali said. “When someone takes responsibility for who they are and how they act, they tend to care mire about what they do and say. In turn making them better people in the community.”

Cardali knew that this was not an easy task to take one, and was prepared to work late and help the girls through the entire process.

“This project truly became a labor of love and just like many things in life, would not have been possible without help,” Cardali said. “A special thank you to the Broadway Mall for allowing us to create this vision here and to do it with such freedom, to the parents who made sure your daughters got to all of our planning meetings and the actual construction- no matter how late it ran.”

The girls went through a couple of different ideas before settling on the reflection wall. Then came the tough part of picking what words to write and put alongside mirrors.

“It was really fun and we put a lot of hard work into it,” Natalia Vance said.

The whole process was thought out and preplanned so that when they started painting, everything fell into place.

“We wrote a bunch of positive words on pieces of paper so we can use them on the wall and had a meeting at the mall to see the space we were working on,” Vance explained.

Not only does this project help inspire others, the girls are using their project to help themselves too.

“It makes me happy that people can look at it and be inspired to feel better about themselves,” Sophia Cardali said.

The girls’’ favorite part was painting the wall and hanging up the mirrors in a strategic way alongside the words. They chose words that represent them and positive, affirming words to uplift others.

“I’m proud of myself and the troop for actually getting it done, so that the community can self-reflect on themselves,” Cardali said.