South Windsor Girl Scouts Receive Gold Award

SOUTH WINDSOR, CT - Four Girl Scouts from South Windsor recently took home gold for their community-focused projects that helped them earn their Gold Awards.

• Jessica Lopes organized and led a craft event for children at the Connecticut Children’s Medical Center for her Gold Award Project, called “Krafts for Kids.” With her project, Jessica’s goal was to ensure that the children, despite their illnesses, still have the opportunity to experience the fun of being a kid. Jessica held a workshop at the hospital filled with fun crafts for the children to participate in, and also created craft kits for the children to use after the workshop. Local Girl Scout troops in Jessica’s town will continue to work with CCMC and lead different craft events. Jessica will attend Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences to pursue a medical career in pharmaceuticals.
• Lucia Palladino organized a group of volunteers to come together and help organize costumes, storage space, photographs, and other items at CAST Theatre, a non-profit organization in Manchester. Lucia catalogued costumes for future productions and scanned photos and entered descriptions into a database. The costumes and the storage areas are better organized so items can be located by CAST members more efficiently in the future. The computer database system for cataloguing and locating costumes will continue to be used by the theatre and volunteers will continue to update the database. Lucia plans to pursue a career in musical theater.
• Amy Elizabeth Wilhelm's project addressed environmental pollutants in her community and taught the next generation how to take care of the environment. Amy spearheaded three park cleanups and taught three fifth-grade classes in her community about the short and long-term effects littering has on the environment. Amy’s technical advisor also plans on continuing clean-up projects in South Windsor by using Amy’s materials and assisting other environmental projects. Amy plans to become a doctor of veterinary medicine and study animal science when she graduates high school.
• Jill Abigail Wilhelm’s project addressed improving communication between generations. Jill held a workshop where she and her volunteers met with residents at her local senior center and transcribed their oral history and took their pictures. Jill taught her volunteers communication skills and helped families connect by sending the oral histories and photos to the individual’s family members. Because of her project’s success, Jill hopes that both parties can work toward improving communication skills between the two generations, and that they will encourage other younger individuals to do so in the future. Jill will be attending the University of Delaware to major in computer science.

The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest, most prestigious award that Girl Scout Seniors and Ambassadors can earn. In order to earn the Gold Award, The Girl Scouts of America states that a Scout must do the following:

1. Choose an issue: Use your values and skills to identify a community issue you care about.
2. Investigate: Research everything you can about the issue.
3. Get help: Invite others to support and take action with you.
4. Create a plan: Create a project plant that achieves sustainable and measurable impact*
5. Present your plan and get feedback: Sum up your project plan for your Girl Scout Council
6. Take action: Take the lead to carry out your plan.
7. Educate and inspire: Share what you have experienced with others.

Click here to see the full list of Gold Award recipients.

Photo courtesy of Girl Scouts of Connecticut