Girl Scout spearheads creation of T.O. school's dance studio

Thousand Oaks Girl Scout Lauren James' Gold Award project, a conversion of the MATES Elementary School kitchen area into a dance studio, was a yearlong achievement that will benefit the school, as well as dance teacher Karen Kernan.

In her seven years at the school, Kernan never had a designated space in which to teach.

"I've taught outside, in the lunch area, in between the book fair and science fair, I've been shuffled everywhere," she said.

No more. With donations for goods and services and a garage sale that James held, she set about to fulfill the requirements for the project for the Gold Award — the highest Girl Scout award possible. It had to be something that would benefit the community and something with sustainability. The studio will accomplish that.

The project also had to incorporate a personal passion, which is why James asked MATES music teacher Frank LaGuardia to be her mentor.

"I met him in the first grade at Ladera Elementary School and started doing his chorus and loved it," said Lauren, 16. "I got a lead in fourth grade, and I learned how to dance and it made me happy. I continued in middle school. When the Gold Award came around, they said I needed to pick something I love."

The 30-foot by 24-foot area James had to work with was being used as a storage room before she got her hands on it.

"It was as if the school had compiled everything they didn't need and put it in this one room," Lauren said. "It was like somebody's garage. It had costumes, piñatas, art supplies, mailboxes, posters, a refrigerator."

Lauren, her parents, sister and Girl Scout Troop 60133 spent three months cleaning out the room on Saturdays. Lauren tore out all the linoleum flooring by herself one Saturday.

"We spent weeks painting and then we had to sand and fill and make sure everything was safe. That was a big thing," she said. "It had to be safe for the school and safe for the environment. I had to make sure all the sharp corners were sanded down and the electrical things were capped off, covered and protected. The district had to come out and make sure it was OK to get everything on the walls taken off and plugged up, and that took forever."

The walls were covered with mirrors and flooring was replaced with high-quality, padded commercial flooring.

"The floor will last a very long time," Lauren said. "It's padded underneath, so if someone falls, they don't fall on concrete."

Lauren attends Thousand Oaks High School and is in the 7 a.m. choir, is the financial and ad manager on the school paper and is on the varsity cheerleading team, said she is so grateful for all the help she had with the project. The project has taught her many things, including how to deal with people.

"This gave me maturity in seeing how things go from person to person, how things get kicked back and have to be approved, how you have to make everybody happy and everyone has an opinion," she said.

Kernan said: "This is a big reward for everyone. It's a tiny, little room, but it's a big statement about what people can do. Look what this young teenager did. It's so heartwarming."

The room was unveiled Friday at the school.