Dear NRCA Committee:
Five years ago, when the girl scouts from troop 913 from Edgewater, Maryland were 12 years old, they decided they wanted to make a difference in our community. They decided to build the “Butterfly Boutique” at the Chrysalis House which is the largest Girl Scout Gold Award Project in the history of girl scouts. When the girls called and made their appointment with Tom Fichtner of Fichtner Services Central, Inc., they had no idea how generous and supportive Mr. Fichtner would be. In addition to providing the labor to install the roof on our 1,700 sq. ft. Butterfly Boutique building, he also donated and installed all the siding and gutters for our project. He did not stop there. Mr. Fichtner felt so passionate about our project that he donated a dumpster for us to use during our construction, picked the dumpster up when it needed to be emptied and also contacted a Port-a-Potty company to use for the project duration. When we were in a critical stage of framing the roof, Mr. Fichtner came through again by offering a dozen or so framing carpenters to help “raise our roof” on this important community service building project. By far, Mr. Fichtner and Fichtner Services Central, Inc. has been one of our strongest and most reliable supporters of this project. If it wasn’t for Tom Fichtner, our girls probably would not be in a position to complete this Girl Scout Gold Award Project before they graduate in May, 2011. The Chrysalis House is an innovative addiction treatment agency offering drug treatment to women with the disease of addiction, including pregnant and post-partum women and their children. One of the unique advantages that the Chrysalis House program offers is that it keeps families together by allowing young children to live with their mothers while going through the rehabilitation program. Our project, The Butterfly Boutique, is a 1,700 sq. ft. building that will be used for a resale shop and to teach the residents at the Chrysalis House job skills so they can become contributing members of society when they leave the program. If you have time, please visit the Chrysalis House website at chrysalishouses.org and click on the Butterfly Boutique link to find out more information on this project.
