Girl Scout Cadettes Earn Silver Award

Girl Scout Cadettes can earn the Silver Award, which is the highest award a Cadette can earn. It is ranked second behind the overall highest Girl Scout Award known as the Gold Award. In order to earn the Silver Award, a girl must complete a series of leadership challenges and an extensive service project in her community. Girls then identify an issue they are passionate about, determine a resolution and spend more than 50 hours of preparing, planning and working to carry out their plan to solve the issue.

Girl Scout Troop 6679 is proud to announce that two girls in the Troop earned their Silver Award this year; Scarlett Meza of San Diego and Sophie White of Carlsbad. Both girls are 8th graders at Francis Parker Middle School located in San Diego.

Scarlett Meza wanted to help solve pollution issues affecting the ocean after hearing news stories about the trash piled up on San Diego beaches and seeing it first hand when she would visit the beach. She said "I really want to help our environment by educating and inspiring the next generation of people to make a change in the world". Scarlett held workshops throughout San Diego where she taught kids (and their parents) about ocean pollution, how people generate that pollution and creative ways to help stop it. She offered classes on how to make homemade products that have a lesser environmental impact than commercial chemically-laden ones. According to Scarlett, "having parents and kids leave my class with more knowledge about how we can help stop ocean pollution with some pretty simple and creative changes made me feel like I was making a difference. She also said "my self confidence increased when I realized I had the power to organize an event on my own and change people's minds by educating them on something that I'm passionate about".

Sophie White has always loved Balboa Park and wanted to share her passion about it by educating kids and parents about the history behind many different aspects and places within Balboa Park, like the Pacific House of Relations and the Cottages. She offered workshops to over 100 kids and parents during the Fall of 2018 and Winter of 2019. Sophie said "many people do not know of the Park's storied history and I believe it is so important to know our City's history.” She created workbooks for kids to use during their two hour walking journey through the park. She led them to the House of Puerto Rico where they learned the impacts that Hurricane Maria inflicted on the island. Sophie also took them to the House of China where they received a card with their own name written in Chinese. They sampled tasty treats from the House of the Czech Republic and learned about the variety of plants throughout the park and their significance. The workshops were inspirational to Sophie because "I felt I made a meaningful difference by showcasing one of San Diego's best venues to people who never knew about the details, including several adults".

The Silver Award requires extensive efforts at a young age and it represents 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. Both Scarlett and Sophie demonstrate how to be young women of courage, confidence and character who make a meaningful difference in their communities.

The Girl Scout Silver Award is one of countless awards and programs offered in Girl Scouts where developing and displaying leadership takes center stage. Girls at every age level are encouraged to build leadership skills by discovering, connecting and taking action. Service is built into all aspects of Girl Scouts with the hope that girls like Scarlett and Sophie will carry a commitment to serving others into their adult lives. For information on Girl Scout leadership programs please visit SDGirlScouts.org.