Marian Medal Award

 

The Marian Medal Program is for Catholic Girl Scouts in grades 7-9. The manual used is “Mary the First Disciple” and the program is coordinated through the Office for Youth Ministry in Whitinsville. 

Reverend Bill Konicki presented six girls their Marian Medals at Sacred Heart Parish in Hopedale at the 10:30 Mass on May 23, 2004. The girls did a Mary Crowning ceremony after the Mass processing outside with their banners and flags.

 

The recipients were Dana Auger and Ashley Reichert from St. Mary of the Assumption in Milford, Carissa and Arianna Niro from Sacred Heart in Milford, and Jessica Cockroft and Lindsay Weaver from Sacred Heart in Hopedale.  Their group leader was Mary Cockroft.  These girls are from troops in Hopedale and Milford and are part of the Girl Scouts of Montachusetts Council in Worcester.

 

They studied Mary’s life through Scripture, prayed the rosary, and created a liturgical dance.   New friendships and bonds were nurtured as they went on a retreat together, studied Marian artwork, visited the Fatima Shrine, and did several service projects including, serving a meal at the Winter Haven shelter and having a baby shower for an unwed teen.  Additionally they wrote their own prayer service, made banners, windsocks and shadow boxes depicting Mary’s life.

 

When presenting their prayer service that they wrote in April, the girls had an opportunity to reflect on the program as a whole.  Carissa Niro wrote, “When I started this Marian Medal, I thought it was going to be pretty boring, but I was wrong.  I learned a lot of things about Mary I didn’t know before like how she was conceived Jesus through the Holy Spirit when she was only 14 years old and that she was in a locked room with the disciples at Pentecost. “

 

Dana Auger wrote, “ As I look back on the work we have completed, all I can say is wow!  All of us have put so much effort into this program.  Mary is a great role model, one which we should all keep in mind in our years to come.”

 

Jessica Cockroft wrote, “During this time, I have made many new friendships that I will treasure forever as well as learned a large amount of new things about my own religion.  I now feel I can really talk to Mary as I would any other person, for she is just someone like us yet a lot more special as the Blessed Mother of Jesus.” 

 

The girls so enjoyed working together that they have decided continue meeting to work on the Girl Scout Silver Award project doing something “Catholic”.   They will be starting their work in June.

Anyone interested in finding out more information
on the
Girl Scout Marian Medal Award
please contact Mary Cockroft
at (508) 634-3707