Emerging Leader: Jessica Hammond
47 ABC – Meet Jessica Hammond, our new emerging leader and a senior at the Gunston School in Centreville, Maryland, whose work in creating more environmental awareness has earned her a gold award with the Girls Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay.
The Gold award, the highest award one can earn in Girls Scouts, is earned by creating a sustainable and long-lasting project that identifies an issue in the community, benefits those around you, creates a plan of action, and educates and inspires. For Jessica, she created environmental awareness signs which are located at the growing Easton Point park.
Her passion for living sustainably and protecting the environment inspired her work to also help educate others. The signs, which contain QR codes, are giving community members the chance to also share and understand her vision. “I’m just trying to spread more awareness and get people talking and start conversations.” Jessica adds, “I think we need to be starting now and kind of step-up up no matter if you’re younger or you’re older, you need to take that next step, and take a step forward in doing what they’re passionate about and protect things they feel need protection.”
Her signs include information on how climate change affects the Chesapeake Bay, how youth can get involved, small actions everyone can do, how to eat more sustainably, and information about native plants.
Along with creating those conversations, Jessica tells us this is just a small part of her overall goal. She says young voices can make a huge difference in the community, and with her experience in working with the Easton town council, and other entities, she saw the difference she could make. She hopes the next generation can follow in her footsteps. “I guess I kind of want to be a role model for other people, and kind of someone who people say oh she did that project, well maybe I want to do my project.”
Again, those signs are in Easton Point Park in Easton, MD. There will also be more put up as that park continues to grow.
