Along the Scouting Trails: Scout is finishing Gold Award

Madeleine Fisher of La Cañada Flintridge, a volunteer candy striper at Huntington Memorial Hospital and an active Girl Scout since the first grade, is putting the finishing touches on her Gold Award project this summer.

As part of her project, Fisher has assembled 150 activity bags for the siblings of infants at the Pasadena hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit. She has also collected clothing, blankets and diapers that will be donated to Elizabeth House to assist homeless women who are expecting babies.

The activity bags are designed to ease the stress felt by siblings of the tiny patients under intensive care. She knows first-hand of the challenges these youngsters feel, as two of her own family members were treated there. The bags include coloring booklets she designed herself, crayons, stickers and a plush toy. Also included in each bag is either a book or a set of flash cards.

-- Carol Cormaci, carol.cormaci@latimes.com