Lynn and April, after April received her award from the Association of Fundraising Professionals of Southeastern Wisconsin on Nov 11.

 
Moms can make a real difference, and Wauwatosa Personal Banker Lynn Fehr and her daughter, April, prove it.

Last month, the Association of Fundraising Professionals of Southeastern Wisconsin gave April its Philanthropic Youth of Today Award for 2014. April, a senior at Brookfield Central High School, is a longtime Girl Scout whose Gold Award project focused on helping support a Girl Guide troop in the African country of Tanzania. The Gold Award is the highest honor a Girl Scout can achieve, similar to the Boy Scouts’ Eagle rank.

“The Gold Award is probably more difficult to get,” says Lynn, who has served as a coleader for April’s troop since April was in second grade, and who was also a den mother and merit badge counselor when April’s two older brothers were in Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts. An Eagle project can be more of a one-shot deal; it doesn’t have to be designed to be sustainable. “With Girl Scouts, after you’re done, it has to go on.”

For her project, April sent both educational materials and supplies like water, food, clothing, and school supplies to the Girl Guide troop in Arusha, Tanzania. She also coordinated volunteer efforts in the other country, gave presentations locally, and used social media to build connections between the girls in Arusha and girls in Wisconsin. Her aim is to help empower the Tanzanian girls, so that they’re in a better place to improve conditions in their country — where a woman’s average life expectancy is only 48 years — when they become adults.

Lynn has been an important part of April’s scouting journey for the last decade. “A leader resigned, and I was asked if I would be willing to be a coleader,” Lynn says. Lynn’s coleader Heather handles many duties, but has a handicap that limits her mobility. “We work quite well as a team. She does the paperwork, organization, crafts, and singing, while I lead the girls on the trips.”

Those trips have been numerous and to all sorts of interesting places. “The girls have slept in a cave, camped in the northern and southern Kettle Moraine forests, slept in teepees, and gone horseback riding,” Lynn says. They’ve attended the Trees for Tomorrow ecology camp, spent a week at Wildman Adventure Resort in northern Wisconsin, kayaked, camped at and hiked Devil’s Lake State Park, taken bike trips, gone on a mother-daughter cultural tour of the Dominican Republic, gone downhill skiing in Northern Michigan, and traveled to Chicago. On top of that, they’ve gone to many Girl Scout camps and have also attended lots of ballets, concerts, plays, and movies.

All the girls in April’s troop earned their Bronze, Silver, or Gold awards, and she and some of the others also participated in Destinations, special trips that scouts must apply for. “April has canoed the Boundary Waters, hiked to the bottom of the Grand Canyon, and traveled to Costa Rica — she hiked through the rain forest, staying with families along the way, and did a service project in San Jose,” Lynn says.

“My mom’s involvement in Girl Scouts is huge,” says April. “Not only has she been my Girl Scout leader since Brownies, but she was also my support and encouragement while I took on these larger projects. As a troop leader, my mom has not only given me but a whole group of girls amazing opportunities, and for that I am so thankful.”

Lynn was not a Girl Scout herself growing up, but believes in the program’s power to shape girls’ lives. “I’m involved in Girls Scouts because it helps to build strong, confident young women who have character and teaches them leadership skills. Scouting gives girls a chance to have experiences they might not have had otherwise.”

She’ll miss her tenure as a troop leader after April graduates this spring, but is sure her responsibilities as a church youth group leader, among other things, will keep her busy.

“My time, it will be filled,” Lynn says. “And I like to hike, so that will go on, too.”