Three Clayton Girl Scouts labored together recently with Mary Spryer, curator of the Clayton Historical Museum, to ensure that their community’s history remains alive.

Sarah Agronow, Claire Minorsky and Mary Raymond set out in early 2009 to find a project that would serve their community and earn them the prestigious Gold Award. The award is the highest one Girl Scouts ages 14-18 can achieve.

The group’s Website describes the award as representing “a girl’s commitment to herself and to her community, as she focuses on leadership, career exploration, personal challenges and completing a lasting project that will benefit her community.”

Agronow, who had served as a junior docent at the museum, went to Spryer for ideas for the project. Spryer had just the thing in mind: the museum’s oral history project. The project was a long cherished one, but thus far, no one at the museum had enough time to commit to it.

“We thought it was important because we have so many members, old timers, and all they’re doing is getting older and older,” Spryer said.

The project would use Agronow’s skills as a videographer, Raymond’s ability to bring people out of their shells and put Minorsky’s organizational skills to work contacting interviewees and transcribing the DVDs.

The goal was to put stories of Clayton’s past onto DVD and paper to make them accessible to the community and keep them for posterity. Working as a team, the girls contributed more than 200 hours to the project.

They drafted letters to a group of potential interviewees provided by Spryer. Raymond made calls to follow up on the letters. Minorsky, who is studying psychology at UCLA, conducted the interviews, and Agronow, who aspires to make movies, filmed them. Raymond transcribed the interviews.

Iola O’Grady was one of those interviewed. The granddaughter of Dominic and Julia Murchio, she remembered visiting their ranch on Mitchell Canyon Road when she was a child.

Even then, traffic was a concern for her family traveling to Clayton from their home in Berkeley. “They used to leave early to avoid the traffic, probably all of 20 cars,” she said with a laugh.

The museum resides in the house once owned by O’Grady’s Aunt Iola and Uncle Neff Christy. Across the street sits the house where her Aunt Dolores (Dolly) Murchio lived and ran the post office from her front room. The building now houses Skipolini’s Pizza.

“I learned a lot more about Clayton’s history, and I learned to appreciate it a lot more,” said Agronow. “I never really realized how much history Clayton had before.”

Minorsky also enjoyed learning about the area’s history. “That’s why we’re all here. Without those people, Clayton wouldn’t be what it is today,” she said. “None of us would be living here.”

Through the project, Raymond said she learned more about her own motivations. “It’s like they say, you can’t really know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been. I feel like who my ancestors were would help define who I am and where I’m going to be.

“It’s made me want to have a voice in the community, made me want to take up leadership positions and make a difference in the world.”