Three teens earned Stars and Stripes Award in the past year
When Amelia Morgan started the project, she didn’t know much about patio building.
She had been praying inside her parish, the Oratory of Sts. Gregory and Augustine, to find the right service project for her American Heritage Girls Stars and Stripes Award.
“I was in church, and I was praying: God, I need a project. Like, now would be great,” she said.
She walked outside to find her father talking to her pastor, who asked if her brother needed an Eagle Scout project; he was looking for someone to build a patio for the church. Amelia volunteered instead.
“A lot of DIY videos were involved,” she said, as she worked with the parish staff to plan the patio design and learned about the process: putting down gravel, then sand, then laying the bricks. The work itself took a whole weekend.
Now, when she steps out onto the patio for fellowship after Mass, “It’s actually really cool — I’m like, wow, I built that,” she said.
Amelia, a senior at Cor Jesu Academy, is one of three teenagers in the American Heritage Girls Troop at Holy Infant Parish in Ballwin to earn her Stars and Stripes Award in the past year. The award is the highest honor given by American Heritage Girls, an international Christian character and leadership development program for girls ages 5-18. Earning the award — akin to a Boy Scouts of America Eagle Scout Award — involves completing a sizable service project along with other requirements.
The three girls started in American Heritage Girls in fourth and fifth grade and became fast friends. They supported each other over the years, sticking together to continue in the troop while numbers shrank during the COVID-19 pandemic and high school activities pulled them in different directions.
“I think we’ve all been (each other’s) support team. If I was the only Patriot (the highest program level), I don’t think I would have pursued the Stars and Stripes Award,” Amelia said. “I remember instances where one of us were like, ‘I’m not going to do this,’ and then the other two would be like, ‘No, pull yourself together.’”
Kasara Deschambault, a senior at Francis Howell High School and parishioner at St. Joseph in Cottleville, chose for her Stars and Stripes project to work with Camp Circle Star, a summer camp for kids with neurodivergences or disabilities. She helped clear trails and bridges, stained a bench and the porch and put together a new room for kids to relax in.
Like Ameilia, Kasara had been praying to find a good project. Soon after, a family friend introduced her to the owner of Camp Circle Star.
“It just really fit everything I was looking for,” said Kasara, who also teaches karate to kids with diverse learning needs.
Olivia Dresser, a junior at Lafayette High School and parishioner at St. Alban Roe, started a nursery at her parish. With donated toys and furniture, she turned a room into a children’s area. During 9:30 a.m. Mass on Sundays, parents can drop off their children ages 1-4 in the nursery while they attend Mass. Olivia and other volunteers lead them in a few prayers and songs — “This Little Light of Mine” is a favorite — and play with them.
The nursery has now been operating for more than a year. It started with about six to seven kids, but now they regularly get around 20, Olivia said.
“The project definitely taught me patience and trusting in God’s plan,” she said.
The three girls have also stepped into leadership roles as the senior members of the troop. They plan and lead the meetings for the younger girls, guiding them through different badges, service projects and activities.
For a recent paper arts badge, for example, “I learned how to papier-mâché and how to make paper dolls, chains, things like that,” Amelia said. “Then we teach that to the younger girls, so they can get the badges, too.”
Faith also plays a big role in the troop’s activities, the girls said. They start and end each meeting with prayer, and they often include learning about a saint. There are specific religious patches and badges to earn, too; some older troop members participated in the National Eucharistic Pilgrimage last summer, then completed a eucharistic adoration patch with the full troop.
That challenged the older girls to be able to explain the mystery of the Eucharist to the youngest girls, Olivia said.
“It’s such a big thing to understand, and it’s hard to put it into small words,” she said.
As Amelia and Kasara prepare to graduate in a few short weeks, the teens have been mentoring two Pioneers — the level below Patriots — to prepare them to take on leadership roles.
For Kasara, her experience in American Heritage Girls helped solidify her desire to be a teacher, she said. She plans to attend the University of Tennessee-Martin in the fall to become a high school chemistry teacher.
And after tackling the patio at Sts. Gregory and Augustine, Amelia found a passion that she plans to turn into a career.
“Building a brick patio, and basically being a project lead, kind of showed me that I like civil engineering, I like designing spaces like that,” she said.
She plans to attend Missouri S&T in the fall to study civil engineering, with newfound confidence in herself.
With God’s help, “I can do a lot more than what I think I can do,” she said.
