After learning how the latest wave of COVID-19 infections is impacting health care workers, members of a local Girl Scout troop took to Zoom recently to make cards supporting Swedish Edmonds doctors, nurses and other health care staff.

Edmonds-based Troop 41481 includes 11 second- and third-grade girls from Edmonds, Lynnwood, and Mountlake Terrace. Their troop leader, Annie Childs, is a registered nurse who works in Seattle and said the girls “have obviously been impacted in a big way by the pandemic and have been eager to still do Girl Scouts, even virtually, to stay connected with each other and help our community.”

“Before the pandemic, the girls were coming up with ideas for service projects and while they hadn’t settled on a specific project yet, they knew they wanted to do something to help either patients in a hospital or show support for health care workers,” Childs added.

During the Zoom meeting with their troop, Childs and co-leaders Emily Thorpe and Sonja Head “discussed how the different health care workers help their patients, and how we are helping health care workers by doing things like holding our meetings virtually, washing our hands, social distancing, and wearing masks when we go out in public,” Childs said. “The girls learned the roles of different staff such as the doctors and nurses, as well as nursing assistants, custodial staff, lab and imaging staff, and the different therapists that patients work with.”

Troop members then picked at least two different health care provider roles to write cards to, including “heartfelt, encouraging messages to them,” said Childs, who will be delivering the cards to Swedish Edmonds later this week.

“The cards are the sweetest thing,” Childs added. “Most girls made extra cards and one girl had already made a poster on her own time that she asked to include when they are delivered.”