Girl Scouts Create Accessible and Affordable Joy for All through STEM

Girl Scouts is committed to providing opportunities for girls to explore, develop, and sharpen their science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills. Today, women make up more than half the U.S. workforce, but they hold less than a quarter of STEM jobs, with the greatest disparities occurring in engineering and computer science. Girl Scout Melissa Fifer is one of many girls who is utilizing her STEM knowledge with the Girl Scout mission to educate and empower others. It was through a very personal connection that she really saw the impact of her work and the potentially life-changing effects — all because of STEM.

In 2019, Melissa attended her first toy adapt-a-thon event at the Bellingham Makerspace. A small group of volunteers spent the evening adapting commercially made toys with large buttons and accessible switches for children with disabilities who often cannot use them as they were originally designed. For example, a child with spinal muscular atrophy, a genetic disease that impacts muscle strength, may struggle to press a small button to activate a toy. Some toys can be adapted, however, to activate by an alternate method such as moving a finger or tilting one’s head.

The event had a lasting impact on Melissa. She left feeling like she’d made a difference for underserved kids, and was excited by the thought of passing it along. She quickly began to plan her own toy adapt-a-thon event for Girl Scouts.

“I thought the event was opening new doors for kids who wouldn’t get the same experience as everyone else, just because they’re different,” Melissa said. “It was exciting!”

While some of the adapted toys were donated to local families, Melissa sent one of her creations to her second cousin Harper, who lives with cerebral palsy (CP)–a group of disorders that affect a person’s ability to move and maintain balance and posture. For Harper, CP has caused problems with walking, talking, and developing fine motor skills, but to Melissa, “she’s just the sweetest little kid, and always so happy and smiley.”

Not too long after, Harper’s mom sent along a short video of her seven-year-old cousin gleefully playing with the adapted toy–pressing the newly installed button for the first time, and watching the toy come alive at her touch. That reaction and her cousin’s joy made her work feel even more important.

“I feel like if you experience it firsthand, and get to see it when it’s someone you really, truly care about–it feels more personal,” Melissa explained. “You get to see your impact a little more clearly.”

Harper’s mom was familiar with adapted toys before Melissa’s came in the mail, but explained that they can be pretty cost-prohibitive for most families–costing anywhere from $350 to $700 each. Those price tags shocked Melissa and reinforced her desire to help.

Melissa’s first adapt-a-thon event was in September of 2019 back the Bellingham Makerspace. Eleven Girl Scouts, with the guidance and support of three adults, learned to solder, deconstruct, reconstruct and wire toy animals with buttons and switches. Melissa had additional help from an Ambassador Girl Scout in Anacortes who assisted in 3D printing the control switch boxes necessary for the toys. More help came from Melissa’s Troop 40721, who donated $522 from their cookie dough toward the event, which allowed 14 toys to be adapted at a cost of $30.48/each. Affordable, accessible joy.

Two girls took their toys home to give to specific kids in their school, and the rest were donated to Whatcom County’s Opportunity Council’s Child Care Resource and Referral Service.

Everyone came away with something that night. For some, it was learning a new skill, like soldering, and discovering they’re quite good at it. For others, it was learning about an issue and understanding the impact it had on underserved communities.

“The girls are also leaving with the sense that they did something for the world,” Melissa said. “Someone is going to get that toy and it’s going to completely change their life.”

Melissa has only hosted one event so far but is hoping for another this fall and adapting different, more difficult toys. She’s dreaming bigger and more long term, too. She wants to make this an annual event and is developing a solid curriculum and partnering with Canada’s Makers Making Change and the Bellingham Makerspace to help others recreate the event. Especially other Girl Scouts who may not have been interested in STEM before.

A 2017 national Girl Scout Research Institute study found that as early as second grade, youth agree that “math is for boys, not girls.” But Girl Scouts is helping bridge the gender gap by ensuring that girls of every age have opportunities to participate in progressive, multiyear STEM experiences.

“I want to make sure that the girls know they’re powerful, they can make a difference, and the fact that they are girls doesn’t stop them from being able to accomplish amazing things,” Melissa said.

Family has played a huge role in Melissa’s mission to positively change lives through Girl Scouting. She also had a head start when it came to her STEM education. Her mom, Erica is a professional engineer and made a point of integrating science into her fifteen-year-old daughter’s life. Melissa recalls being that kid who’d experiment for fun and was always championed by her mom to try soldering, learning about physics, and building trebuchets.

She’s been a member of the Gladiator Gourd Girls since she was 12 — a team of Girl Scouts who designed and built a full-size trebuchet that launched alongside others at the Burlington Fall Festival and Pumpkin Pitch back in September.

You can also find her volunteering at Girl Scout Badge Days, leading songs to new Girl Scouts at camp, and teaching kids about local stream habitats through the Skagit Conservation District. She frequently volunteers for the local animal shelter and jumps at any opportunity to teach other Girl Scouts and youth.

“I’ve been able to do more for the world through Girl Scouts,” Melissa said.

After earning both Silver and Bronze awards, Melissa is thinking about turning her adapt-a-thon work into her Gold Award project. “I want to continue to help girls achieve the things they want and continue empowering young people,” she said. Girl Scouts will be there to help her become part of the next generation of female leaders to change the world in big and small ways!