Redwood City Girl Scout Earns Organization’s Highest Honor and College Scholarship in National Ceremony

On October 29, Girl Scouts of the USA(GSUSA) honored its 2016 National Young Women of Distinction—10 young women from around the country whose efforts reflect extraordinary leadership—including one from the Bay Area.

Caitlyn McElligott from Redwood City representing the Girl Scouts of Northern California, joined nine other honorees from around the country at a GSUSA national leadership meeting in Philadelphia recognizing impact of their Gold Award projects.

Each year GSUSA honors 10 Girl Scouts as National Young Women of Distinction (NYWOD), selected from the thousands of exceptional young women in grades 9–12 who earn their Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouting. National Young Women of Distinction transform an idea and vision for change into an actionable plan with measurable, sustainable, and far-reaching impact at the local, national, and global levels.

Each of the ten honorees presented their exceptional Gold Award projects to Girl Scout leaders, board members, sponsors and alumnae.

Caitlyn's Gold Award project was geared toward educating over a million people about trisomy X, a genetic disorder that affects approximately 1 in 1,000 girls and causes developmental delays. Born with this disorder herself, Caitlyn aimed to increase awareness and arm parents with positive, medically vetted information about the needs of a child born with trisomy X. She worked with geneticists to create a website (TrisonmyXinfo.com) and launched a media campaign that reached nearly 2 million people. She also worked with Kaiser Permanente to update and improve their materials on trisomy X for doctors and patients.

This year marks the centennial of the Girl Scout Gold Award, celebrating millions of Girl Scouts past and present who have created, developed, and executed innumerable "Take Action" projects to make the world a better place. Approximately 5 percent of all Girl Scouts earn their Gold Award each year. The Girl Scouts of Northern California, which represent 50,000 girls across 19 counties, have had a girl earn the title of NYWOD each year since 2013.

The Kappa Delta Foundation bestows recipients a combined $50,000 in college scholarships and individual donors have pledged to support the program: Susan B. Butler, former GSUSA Board member; and Sherry Harmon and Janet Harris, sisters and Girl Scout alumnae.

Caitlyn is currently a freshman at San Francisco State University pursuing a degree in Environmental Science.