Girl Scout Troop 523 Turns Girls’ Ideas Into Action at Ocean Breeze Elementary in Indian Harbour Beach
By Space Coast Daily // August 22, 2026
Bronze Award Project installation ceremony and community cleanup Set for August 31
The Junior Girl Scouts of Troop 523 will celebrate the completion of their Girl Scout Bronze Award project with an installation ceremony and community cleanup at Ocean Breeze Elementary School, 1101 Cheyenne Dr., Indian Harbour Beach, on Monday, August 31, at 5:30 p.m.
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – The Junior Girl Scouts of Troop 523 will celebrate the completion of their Girl Scout Bronze Award project with an installation ceremony and community cleanup at Ocean Breeze Elementary School, 1101 Cheyenne Dr., Indian Harbour Beach, on Monday, August 31, at 5:30 p.m.
The girls, who are generally 9–11 years old and in fourth or fifth grade, chose an environmental project focused on improving the cleanliness of their school and encouraging students to take greater responsibility for their environment.
As part of their project, the girls identified the need for additional outdoor trash cans at the school.
On August 31, they will install the new trash cans and participate in a litter cleanup of the school grounds. An important part of the project was giving the girls an opportunity to learn how decisions affecting their school are made.
The girls worked with School Board Member Matt Susin, who met with Troop 523 to hear their ideas and concerns about Ocean Breeze Elementary.
Susin spoke with the girls about how the school budget works and helped them understand how funding decisions can affect improvements within a school.
During the conversation, the girls shared ideas about what they believed could improve their school.
Among their ideas was creating an environmental club that would give students an opportunity to participate in projects focused on protecting and improving the school environment.
Susin listened to the girls’ ideas and donated the money needed to purchase the new outdoor trash cans, helping Troop 523 turn one of their ideas into a real improvement for their school.
For the girls, the experience provided a hands-on lesson in civic engagement. They learned that identifying a problem is only the first step; making change requires research, communication, advocacy, teamwork, and working with community members who can help make an idea possible.
The Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Junior can earn. Girl Scout Juniors are generally 9–11 years old and in fourth or fifth grade.
To earn the award, girls work together to identify a need in their community, develop a plan, and carry out a project that creates a positive impact. The process helps girls build leadership, teamwork, communication, planning, problem-solving, and advocacy skills.
For Troop 523, the Bronze Award project allowed the girls to address an issue they saw at their school while learning how to use their voices to make a difference.
Local Girl Scout Community Troop 523 is part of Girl Scouts of Citrus Council, which currently serves Girl Scouts and volunteers throughout Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole, and Volusia counties.
Within the council, Troop 523 is also part of Turtle Tracks, a local Girl Scout community and service area that organizes activities and events for Girl Scout troops in the area, including the Back-to-School Dance and Pinewood Derby.
While Troop 523’s Bronze Award project is their own project, the troop is proud to be part of the larger Girl Scout community that provides opportunities for girls to learn, lead, serve, and build friendships.
The Bronze Award celebration will also give the younger Girl Scouts of Troop 523 an opportunity to participate. Brownies and Daisies will help with a playground cleanup while the Juniors complete their project installation and litter cleanup.
During the ceremony, each Junior who worked on the project will have about 30 seconds to share why she chose the project, what she learned, or why keeping the environment clean is important to her.
Troop 523 hopes the project will have an impact beyond installing new trash cans. The girls want their work to encourage students to take pride in their school, dispose of trash properly, and think about additional ways they can help protect their environment.
Most importantly, the girls have learned that their ideas matter.
Through this project, they had the opportunity to identify something they wanted to improve, speak directly with a community leader, learn how school funding works, advocate for their ideas, and see one of those ideas become reality.
Troop 523 is grateful to School Board Member Matt Susin for listening to the girls, taking their ideas seriously, educating them about the school budget, and helping make their vision for a cleaner school possible.
