Nicole Bastanchury, a senior at Santa Ynez Valley Union High School and a member of local Troop 50173, has earned her Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouting.

For her Gold Award project, Nicole created a multi-tiered sewing project called “Back to the Basics,” to introduce the “lost art” of sewing to both girls and boys while paying tribute to her grandmother, who is a member of a sewing circle.

The aim was to create beautiful dresses that were then donated to local homeless shelters, as well as internationally for those in need.

Nicole started by collecting new and gently used pillowcases for a workshop she hosted last summer at The Creation Station in Buellton. The workshop was intended to teach both girls and boys basic sewing skills. Community volunteers taught the students how to hand-sew buttons and use a basic stitch on a sewing machine to create dresses from the pillowcases collected.

“I had a lot of support from my family, my friends, and my two other sister troops,” Nicole said.

The goal was to make 150 dresses to be donated. In all, 159 dresses were donated to the Little Dresses for Africa Organization (LDFAO), Transition House in Santa Barbara, and victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas. Sending the dresses to Texas was not part of the original plan, but she said she was extremely happy to know she could play a small part in helping those affected by the natural disaster.

“My Gold Award project was aimed to help those less fortunate than myself,” Nicole said.  “I wanted young girls to have an item of clothing that can define their personalities and improve their confidence. I hope that each time the girls wear their dress, it puts a smile on their faces.

“Not only did my project help these girls, but we were also able to reuse pillowcases that would be thrown away, and instead create beautiful dresses from them,” she added. “I also wanted to bring back the lost trade of sewing, by hand and machine. Being able to teach young girls and boys sewing is something they can take with them in the future.”

The Girl Scout Gold Award is a national award with high standards to elevate a girl’s leadership skills, creativity, and efforts to make the world a better place. Earning the Gold Award requires spending at least 80 hours planning and implementing a challenging, large-scale project that is innovative, engages others, and has a lasting impact on its targeted community.

The prestigious award recognizes Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts — girls in ninth through 12th grades — for outstanding accomplishments in leadership, community service, career planning and personal development.

“This entire process has been so rewarding,” Nicole added.

Nationwide, only 6 percent of all eligible Girl Scouts achieve the Gold Award. Approximately one million Girl Scouts have earned their Gold Award or its equivalent since 1916. Girls who earn their Girl Scout Gold Award automatically enter the military one rank higher and qualify for college scholarships and additional national service awards.

For more information on Girl Scouts, visit www.girlscoutsccc.org.

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The Santa Ynez Valley is thousands of miles away from the victims of Hurricane Harvey in Texas and Hurricane Irma in Florida, but several local people, businesses and organizations stepped up to donate what they could.

Hurricane Harvey devastated parts of the Gulf coast, mostly in Texas and Louisiana, when 50 inches of rain in nine days flooded the Houston area in August and September — more than the area’s average annual rainfall of 49.76 inches. Wind gusts were reported at 130 miles per hour.

Hurricane Irma then struck Florida on Sept. 10 as a Category 4 storm and caused damage, flooding and knocked out power to more than 6.8 million people.

The valley’s responses ranged from individual to organized.

Michael Silva of Buellton made and sold honey cornbread at his school’s bake sale, where proceeds went to Hurricane Harvey relief efforts.

On a small scale, 12-year-old Michael Silva of Buellton made honey cornbread to sell at his school’s bake sale to raise money for hurricane victims.

The Santa Ynez Valley Mothers of Preschoolers (SYV MOPS) donated to the Texas Diaper Bank (www.texasdiaperbank.org), which provides emergency diaper kits to displaced families.

Recovery Ranch in Santa Ynez sent a team from their Ranch Hands Construction company to the Gulf Coast. They were equipped with a fully outfitted work truck, food trailer and four vans full of men ready and willing to work.

They spent more than two weeks focusing on helping as many people as possible.

“This isn’t the first time Recovery Ranch has joined in a relief effort. After Hurricane Matthew struck the East Coast last year, the men at The Recovery Ranch boarded a plane to Fayetteville, N.C., with nothing more than their backpacks and a desire to help. One week later, they returned home having cleared wreckage from 13 flooded homes and having built a community’s worth of lasting relationships,” said Daniel Ross, owner of Recovery Ranch.

The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians donated $20,000 to Santa Barbara-based Direct Relief International, which deployed teams of people and millions of dollars in medical and other relief supplies.

“We have all seen the videos and heard the stories stemming from this disaster in Houston, so we reached out to a local partner that has an excellent track record in providing humanitarian aid throughout the world,” said Chumash Tribal Chairman Kenneth Kahn. “We’re proud to support Direct Relief and all of its efforts in Houston, and we know that donating to Direct Relief will ensure that the funds are going toward their best possible use.”

Direct Relief recently announced the creation of the Hurricane Community Health Fund, a collaboration among the Texas Association of Community Health Centers, the Florida Association of Community Health Centers, the National Association of Community Health Centers, and the National Association of Free and Charitable Clinics with Direct Relief, which will manage the fund.

The fund will be used solely for the benefit of hurricane-affected communities and people – particularly those who have low incomes, lack insurance, and are among the most vulnerable residents – and will be directed to community health centers and free and charitable clinics in Texas and Florida.

“It is inspiring to see so many Santa Ynez Valley residents participate in efforts to help people who’ve lost so much in the aftermath of Harvey and Irma,” said valley resident Alisse Harris, who is the fund’s campaign manager.

In that role she is coordinating everything from fundraising, tours, and volunteer outreach.  She has helped coordinate volunteers from the Santa Ynez Valley to help pack additional hurricane prep packs and is passionate about getting the word out about the locally based charity that is approaching its 70th year in Santa Barbara County.

Money donated to the Hurricane Community Health Fund will be used for immediate, emergency-related capital and expenses related to relief activities not otherwise covered; intermediate-term expenses to ensure that health centers and clinics are able to maintain and expand services as needed; and longer-term (up to 18 months) expenses to ensure financial stability is not jeopardized for critically important, community-based sources of care.

To learn more about the fund, go to www.directrelief.org.

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The presentation was made by Veronica Sandoval, the administrator for the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Foundation, to Direct Relief Campaign Manager Alisse Harris prior to the Steve Winwood concert Friday night in the Chumash Casino Resort’s Samala Showroom.

“We have all seen the videos and heard the stories stemming from this disaster in Houston, so we reached out to a local partner that has an excellent track record in providing humanitarian aid throughout the world,” said Kenneth Kahn, Tribal Chairman of the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians. “We’re proud to support Direct Relief and all of its efforts in Houston, and we know that donating to Direct Relief will ensure that the funds are going toward their best possible use.”

Direct Relief, in consultation with the Texas Association of Community Health Centers, announced Friday an initial $350,000 for emergency operating grants of up to $25,000 each for community health centers in Texas to help address immediate financial needs that have arisen from the devastation caused by Hurricane Harvey.

These emergency funds – made possible because of contributions Direct Relief has received for Hurricane Harvey – will be targeted to health centers in the communities that have experienced damage or operational losses from the hurricane or have expanded services to care for persons evacuated to other areas.

Direct Relief also is providing emergency deliveries of essential medications and health commodities to TACHC member health centers and other nonprofit safety-net health providers in Texas. Since the flooding began, Direct Relief has provided 60 emergency deliveries to 18 sites in Texas containing more than $900,000 (wholesale) in medicines and supplies, which include insulin and other requested medications that are critically important for patients with chronic conditions that can rapidly become life threatening if unmanaged.

For more information on the organization or how to make a donation, visit directrelief.org.

The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians has donated more than $20 million to hundreds of groups, organizations and schools in the community and across the nation as part of the tribe’s long-standing tradition of giving. To find out more about the Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Foundation and its giving programs, visitwww.santaynezchumash.org.

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