Juliet Nimocks, 18-year-old Troop 80 Girl Scout and high school student from Goose Creek, South Carolina, wanted to help homeless pets. That simple desire soon turned into something much bigger, earning her the Girl Scouts’ Gold Award!
The Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can receive. Based on problem-solving, the Gold Award is given to a Girl Scout who takes on a project with intent to solve a problem they have identified within their community. However, only the Girl Scout who goes above and beyond to make real-world, global change will receive the Gold Award. Juliet Nimocks did just that.
Juliet’s passion for helping animals led her to a place called Bear Greer Memorial Cat Sanctuary, a division of the Charleston Animal Society located in Ravenel, South Carolina. This anti-cruelty shelter is a permanent home for more than 200 undomesticated, unadoptable, or homeless cats. Juliet began volunteering here, and noticed a big problem.
Fully funded by donations and staffed mostly by volunteers, the number one priority of this sanctuary is, of course, keeping the cats fed. But this means there is not a lot of room in their budget to keep the cats entertained and happy. Juliet saw a dearth of play structures necessary to these cats’ health, so she took the issue into her own hands.
The first step to problem-solving is creating a plan. Juliet first did some research, looking for the best way to improve these cats’ lives. Then, she developed a method to build a large enrichment structure for the cats to explore, climb on, and scratch at. She budgeted the project and bought the pieces herself, then set out to assemble the construction from scratch.
According to Christine Brugge, the Director of Bear Greer Memorial Cat Sanctuary, “[c]ats that are provided with a more varied, enriched environment tend to gain confidence, become more adoptable and secure in their environment, and stay healthier, too!” Clearly, everyone at Bear Greer—staff and cats included!—is ecstatic about the structures Juliet built.
This project isn’t just a one-time thing, either. Juliet went above and beyond to ensure that these cats—and others—could have structures like this one forever. With a simple tutorial video posted to YouTube, Juliet expanded her outreach. This video means that cat caretakers all over the world can keep building more cat structures like Juliet’s.
The effects of Juliet’s project were evident after just a few months: “After my structure was created and placed at the Cat Sanctuary, the cats began investigating and interacting with it,” Juliet says. “There are several colonies of cats at Bear Greer,” but “[t]here were only a few structures when I dropped off my enrichment structure, and they were falling apart.”
Yet, Juliet continues, “When I visited in July, there were at least 6 structures for the cats to play on.” The number of structures had doubled in the months that Juliet had been away, meaning that Juliet’s work on this project has made a huge, lasting impact on these cats’ lives. All this hard work demonstrates Juliet’s great dedication to her community, as well as her selflessness, as she committed many hours of her life to this cause while also juggling other commitments like school and work.
Juliet also struggled with a fear of public speaking, as this project required her to propose plans and give presentations. Life for an 18-year-old can be tough, but Juliet Nimocks found the courage to give all she could to these animals, as well as cats all over the world. The journey wasn’t easy, but she did it, and we are so proud of her here at Girl Scouts!
This outstanding project is why Juliet received the Girl Scouts Gold Award for our region! Juliet’s tenacity, bravery, and, above all, her dedication to solving problems in her community and beyond is impressive. For these reasons, Girl Scouts of Eastern South Carolina is honored to higlight her for this Gold Award!
For more information on the cat sanctuary, contact Kylie Wiest at the Bear Greer Memorial Cat Sanctuary (kwiest@charlestonanimalsociety.org) to volunteer, or volunteer at your local shelter and make your own enrichment structure with Juliet’s YouTube video: view the video here www.youtube.com/watch?v=GA5zqmWNoOw.
written by guest writer, Paige C. Blackburn
