BY WENDI REARDON PRICE
Clarkston News Staff Writer
Emily Herrmann enjoys music and wants to bring it to everyone through her Girl Scout Gold Award Project.
Herrmann, a Clarkston High School senior, wants to install a Outdoor Musical Playground in Depot Park, which she chose because she wanted to make an impact in her community based around music.
She has witnessed how music can affect even one person when she was in Concert Choir during her sophomore year, as one of her classmates has Down Syndrome and is nonverbal.
“He enjoyed choir so much and the music,” she smiled. “He would always dance along to it. He connected with music, he was able to engage, to feel emotions. I got to thinking about all the students like him. I wanted to do something which would bring music to all the kids who have special needs and also kids who don’t. I want to include everyone in music and bring them together.”

Herrmann came across the idea for the outdoor musical playground as her Gold Award project as she was looking through Pinterest.
A picture came up in the feed with a link to the company – Freenotes Harmony Park.
“I thought this is really cool,” she said. “I went to the website and fell in love with them. I decided that is what I wanted to do for my project.”
She initially wanted to install it at one of the elementaries in the district, but found out the Clarkston Area Optimist Club and Friends of Depot Park had been talking about putting instruments in downtown Clarkston in Depot Park.
Herrmann decided she could add her instruments to theirs in the park, for which she chose the flowers and serenade pieces.
“The flowers I really liked because they were fun and looked very sculptural,” she said. “I thought it would be cute to have them in the park. The serenade piece was bought by the Optimists Club. I might do a different piece, but I haven’t decided which one.”
Herrmann added she likes the serenade piece because it has a booklet to play songs on the color-coded chimes.
She is half way to her minimum goal of $4,000 and is hoping to have all of the money raised by Sept. 30.
“I would like to have it installed before snow arrives,” Herrmann said.
“I am excited to see the impact it is going to have on the community and to see kids playing with it in the park. It makes me really excited to do it,” she added.
“Music is a huge part of my life,” Herrmann said, adding her mom and her cousins are very musically inclined and she has always been around it.
Plus, she is a member of the Clarkston High School Marching Band Color Guard, member of the Madrigals, and a Drama Club Honors Thespian. She is the current president of the Drama Club and has participated in the musicals, Mime Troupe and costume crew.
If interested in donating, please make check donations payable to Girl Scouts of Southeast Michigan (GSSEM) and mailed to Ms. Emily Herrmann, GS Troop 13363, P.O. Box 563, Clarkston, MI 48347. Or you can make a donation through PayPal to: gssemtroop13363@gmail.com.
The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest and most prestigious award in Girl Scouting. Each year, the Gold Award is presented to girls in grades 9-12 who have planned and executed significant Take Action projects in response to pressing community needs.
The Gold Award is awarded to fewer than six percent of Girl Scouts annually. Only 16 girls in Southeast Michigan were awarded this honor this past April.

  Girl Scout, Girl Scout Gold Award Project, music