Future leaders are right here in our community. BACS is so impressed with this Gold Star Girl Scout project – it’s a solar, eco-friendly design with practical and compassionate applications.

When the pandemic began, it highlighted an issue that was hidden before. Public locations like libraries had closed, and a large population was left without access to their devices that needed electrical outlets to be charged. For many, like our unhoused neighbors, devices like phones are a necessity, not a luxury. They connect people with information and allow them to find jobs. Without devices being charged, important modes of communication were closed.

A small team of ambassador girl scouts and high schoolers banded together and designed a project to provide more charging solutions to the unhoused across Fremont and the Bay Area. This project, led by girl scout Aparna Singh, placed a combination of permanent and portable charging solutions at BACS and other community organizations’ sites, to make using devices and gaining crucial information a bit more accessible to all. These charging solutions will allow people to have access to their devices even years after the pandemic has come to a close.

Aparna and her troop started fundraising for the stations in October 2020, and the charging stations were installed in June 2021. Thank you Aparna and Troop 33188!

You can see their project brochure here.