Girl Scouts To Honor Female Leaders in Arizona

Girl Scouts-Arizona announces the honorees for its

2015 Women & Young Women of Distinction.

Girl Scouts-Arizona Cactus-Pine Council (GSACPC) announced the honorees for its 2015 Women & Young Women of Distinction event, which will be held at the JW Marriott Scottsdale Camelback Inn Resort & Spa on Oct. 17, 2015. The annual awards luncheon celebrates the remarkable impact girls and women have in our community through their leadership and unwavering service. They also share a common bond: Their values and leadership started through being a Girl Scout.

The luncheon, GSACPC’s only fundraising event during the year, presents an excellent opportunity for the community to celebrate current and rising female leaders and for Girl Scout alumnae to reunite with fellow Girl Scouts or their former troop members. The event will be a time to revisit memories, network and find out what’s new in Girl Scouting in Arizona.

“Girls represent our greatest under-utilized talent pool with the greatest potential to positively impact our future,” says JoEllen Lynn, this year’s event chair and director of public and community affairs for Fry’s Food Stores Phoenix. “Today’s young girls have amazing opportunities in front of them, and this luncheon honors those outstanding Girl Scouts and prominent women in our community who are leading by example with the courage, confidence and skills needed to step forward and lead the next generation.”

Meet this Year’s Honorees:

[ Young Women of Distinction

Stephanie Banda

Banda recently graduated from Westview High School, though just five years ago no one would have imagined that possible, as she was headed down the wrong path. Faced with the options of juvenile detention or joining a youth program, Banda chose the latter and became a part of a Girl Scout program that drastically changed her life for the better. Although initially reserved, Banda soon became actively involved in her troop activities. Last summer, she was chosen to participate in and travel to the Oxford Leadership Academy in London. This summer Banda gives canoe lessons and helps other young girls grow and thrive at the Shadow Rim Ranch camp.

Tess Grossman

Grossman is a junior at Tesseract School in Phoenix and is a Girl Scout Ambassador in the Indian Bend neighborhood. In addition to co-founding a creative writing club her school and competing as a figure skater, Tess Banda created a support group for deaf children, teens and their parents as the focus of her recently earned Girl Scouts Gold Award. Born with a profound hearing loss in both ears, and among the first to receive a cochlear implant, Grossman has become a leader and advocate for the deaf community. Her unwillingness to be defined by her limitations is both inspiring and courageous.

Jessica Lynn Peebles

Peebles has boundless energy for helping her community, having put in more than 200 hours of service for numerous organizations as a junior at Desert Vista High School. She has taken on leadership roles with Thunder Buddies, Special Olympics of Arizona and the American Cancer Society, all while taking honors and advanced placement classes and maintaining a 3.98 GPA. Peebles is currently working on a sustainable energy project for her Gold Award. She plans to enter college in the fall of 2016 to study Chemical Engineering, and ultimately be able to create products that will help make a difference in the world.

[ Women of Distinction

Shannon Goldwater

Goldwater is the founder of Feeding Matters, a unique nonprofit organization dedicated to conquering pediatric feeding struggles. Goldwater founded Feeding Matters after having gone through difficulties with her own triplets. The organization’s online platform allows families to share advice and support, and provides medical professional education. Last year, they served more than 48,000 people from 89 different countries with education, research and referrals. Most importantly, Feeding Matters is pioneering change for infants and children by increasing the awareness and understanding of the impact of feeding struggles on a child's social, emotional, developmental, and medical well-being.

Verma Pastor

Pastor has been actively involved with her community, both personally and professionally, for more than 40 years. She is a former educator in the elementary school system and former Director of the State Bilingual Education Program. She currently serves on the Arizona Sports Authority Board and  the Phoenix Aviation Advisory Board. Over the years she has been active on numerous boards serving the greater community, including the Girl Scouts-Arizona Cactus-Pine Council board. Her commitment to girls and Girl Scouting has continued long after her board tenure. Pastor remains engaged in the Council’s efforts to ensure that every girl in Arizona who wanted to be a Girl Scout may do so. ‘¨

Julia Patrick 

Patrick has been an entrepreneur her entire life. Her company, Patrick Media Group, publishes Frontdoors News, Food & Flourish, The Wedding Chronicle and Great Wine News. In addition to building this thriving business, Patrick tirelessly works with nonprofit organizations, community leaders, business owners and philanthropists to help build a stronger community here in Arizona. Her latest investment has been in the creation and development of the Arizona Nonprofit Academy, an affordable resource that champions sustainable approaches to philanthropy through leadership, education and a collaborative connectivity for Arizona's nonprofit community. A fourth-generation Arizona native, Patrick enjoyed her experiences as a Girl Scout in the Arizona Cactus-Pine Council.