Girl Power! How 33 Scouts Became Top Achievers
From organizing a community book drive for the children of a domestic violence shelter to crocheting lap blankets to donate to hospice patients, 33 local Girl Scouts dedicated themselves to projects to help the people around them.
This year 33 local Girl Scouts, between the ages of 14 and 17-years-old were the most prestigious award in Girl Scouting – the Girl Scout Gold Award – for significant contributions to the community. The young women who are bestowed this award are encouraged to become leaders in their community by identifying and developing a plan to solve a significant issue in their community.
The project requires over 80 hours of service and can take up to two years to complete. Nationally, only one million Girl Scouts in grades 9-12 have earned the award, or its equivalent, since 1916. Gold awardees often rise to the top of college admission processes, earn scholarships and enter the military one rank higher.
“I am honored to congratulate these outstanding girls,” said Tamara Woodbury, CEO of Girl Scouts-Arizona Cactus-Pine Council. “By earning the Gold Award, Girl Scouts set themselves apart as top achievers, and are incredible women of confidence, courage, and character, who make the world a better place.”
Each of this year’s awardees dedicated themselves to a different cause ranging from the protection of Monarch butterflies to improving the community’s knowledge of ASL. A few of the most impactful are listed below.
- Riley Wagner of Glendale’s project, Coding Clubs, aimed to close the gender gap in STEM fields by creating coding clubs for elementary school students in the West Valley.
- Becky Heller of Peoria’s project, Junior Arts Mentoring Organization, created an art mentoring program after she learned that the school’s art programs had been cut due to lack of funding.
- Ashley Hale of Glendale’s project, Suicide and Depression Needs Your Attention, raised awareness for suicide and depression by organizing a suicide awareness walk, selling “bucket list” themed merchandise and distributing informational fliers and business cards she created.
- Klara Olcott, also of Glendale, created a project called #WearID: The Next One Could Be Me, to raise awareness of the importance of those with diabetes wearing an emergency ID bracelet. She also created a Facebook page about this issue called, Wear An Emergency ID: The Next One Could Be Me, and used her hashtag, #WearID to reach more than 70,000 people.
- Paige Brown, of Mesa’s project, Reading for All, was a community book drive for the children of her local domestic violence shelter. Over 2,000 books were donated.
- Ellie Bowen or Prescott Valley’s project, Empowering Women in Crisis, was to renovate the lobby of the Life Connections Pregnancy Center in her community with fresh paint and new furniture. She also created and distributed brochures with information and resources for pregnant women.
- Dulce Gariepy of Phoenix centered her project around Alzheimer’s awareness amongst her peers. The project, Yarn for Comfort, was to create a presentation on the disease for 500 Phoenix area teenagers to see, and to crochet 50 lap blankets, with the help of the community, to donate to hospice patients.
These 33 recipients were honored at the Girl Scout High Award Ceremony on March 25 at The Bob & Renee Parsons Leadership Center for Girls and Women at Camp South Mountain.
