Lee County Girl Scouts Earn Top Honor

Fort Myers, Fla.–Six Girl Scouts from Lee County have earned the highest and most prestigious honor available to Girl Scouts—the Gold Award.

The Gold Award is earned by girls in grades 9–12 who demonstrate extraordinary leadership in developing meaningful, sustainable solutions to local, national or global challenges.

Three of the award recipients are students at Fort Myers High School. For her project titled “Girls Take a Stand,” Carolina Cicotte organized a program to build twenty boat stands for her school’s sailing club. Isabella Ramirez’s project, “Family Cycle Day,” incorporated monthly bike and pedestrian safety events in her community to help educate adults and children about safely sharing the road. For her project titled “Music for Memory,” Savannah Duff organized live musical performances at local memory care facilities after learning that listening to nostalgic music can help trigger the memory of Alzheimer’s and dementia patients.

For her “Bat Houses” project, Kaylee Kirchberber, a 2020 graduate of Cypress Lake High School, designed, built, and installed bat houses in her local parks to help sustain the bat population in her community. She also created a blog that explores the important role bats play in our ecosystem.

Recent Bishop Verot High School graduate Shavonne Schrikel created a short video to help a local quadriplegic man share his story and inspire others. Her project is titled, “The Mind of a Quadriplegic.”

Melissa Gonzales, a student at East Lee County High School, hosted a seminar that encouraged open and honest conversations about child sexual abuse, and created an ongoing blog with resources for victims. Her project is titled, “There’s No Excuse.”

The benefits to these extraordinary young women—and, by extension, the world—are substantial. Research from the Girl Scout Research Institute finds that Gold Award Girl Scouts display more positive life outcomes than other young women, including those that pertain to sense of self, life satisfaction, leadership, life success, community service and civic engagement.

“Gold Award Girl Scouts are the dreamers and doers who take ‘make the world a better place’ to the next level,” said Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida CEO Mary Anne Servian. “These Lee County Girl Scouts tackled issues that are important to them and their communities, and we congratulate them on this momentous accomplishment.”

A total of 14 Girl Scouts from the Gulfcoast Council earned the Gold Award in 2020. To learn more about the Girl Scout Gold Award, local award recipients, and their projects, or for more information about Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida, visit www.gsgcf.org.

About the Girl Scout Gold Award: Gold Award Girl Scouts don’t just change the world for the better, they change it for good. The Gold Award is earned by girls in grades 9–12 who demonstrate extraordinary leadership in developing sustainable solutions to local, national and global challenges. Since 1916, Girl Scouts have answered the call to drive lasting, impactful change. The Gold Award is the mark of the truly remarkable. Learn more at www.gsgcf.org/girls/gold-award.

About Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida, Inc.: Girl Scouts offers every girl a chance to practice a lifetime of leadership, adventure and success. Our mission: to build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. Girl Scouts of Gulfcoast Florida is chartered by Girl Scouts of the USA and serves girls in grades K-12 across 10 counties including Manatee, Hardee, Highlands, Sarasota, DeSoto, Charlotte, Glades, Lee, Hendry and Collier. To volunteer, join, donate or learn more, visit www.gsgcf.org.