06/19/2007

Girl Scout Earns Gold Award with Fort Mackinac Project

Mackinac Island, Mich. — A visit to Fort Mackinac inspired it. An aunt, whose daughter is also working on a Mackinac-related project, nurtured the idea along. Then, after six months of organization and implementation, Ani Kazanjian of Ann Arbor completed it: her Girl Scout Gold Award project to create a dozen dresses for use in the fort’s Kids’ Quarters exhibit.

Kazanjian returned to Mackinac in late May to present her handiwork to Katie Cederholm, curator of education for Mackinac State Historic Parks, the state agency that manages the fort. Cederholm said of the gift: “We’re so pleased to add Ani’s costumes to our exhibit,” noted Cederholm. “They’re the perfect complement to our child-sized uniform jackets that resemble those worn by 19^th-century soldiers at the fort.”

Kazanjian is a home-schooled student living in Ann Arbor and destined for the University of Michigan in the fall. She joined the Girl Scouts as an individual—a ‘Juliette’—a year and a half ago and immediately dedicated herself to earning a Gold Award: the equivalent of an Eagle Scout designation. After contacting Cederholm, who provided several dress patterns and some fabric, Kazanjian purchased more fabric and trim and enlisted the help of 10 friends to sew the garments over the winter. The dresses have an unusual feature: They are open in the back so that young visitors to Kids’ Quarters can have the experience of trying on the fashions of the 1880s, the period interpreted at the island fort.

The Kids’ Quarters exhibit, which opened in 2001, is filled with many such hands-on activities, including Morse code stations, a giant fife, and an interactive video that enables children to drill like a soldier with the help of a "virtual" sergeant-at-arms. The exhibit is located in the fort’s Officers’ Stone Quarters, which was built in 1780 and is the oldest building in Michigan.

Mackinac State Historic Parks is a family of living history museums and nature parks in northern Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac and is an agency within the Michigan Department of History, Arts and Libraries. Its sites—which are accredited by the American Association of Museums—include Fort Mackinac, Mackinac Island State Park, and Historic Downtown on Mackinac Island, and Colonial Michilimackinac, Historic Mill Creek, and Old Mackinac Point Lighthouse in Mackinaw City. Visitor information is available at 231-436-4100 or on the web at www.MackinacParks.com.