Glen Ellyn Sisters Earn Top Girls Scouts Award

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More than 80 local high school students recently earned Girl Scouts of the USA’s most prestigious national honor for girls, the Girl Scout Gold Award. Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana honored their accomplishments during a special ceremony at the Hilton Rosemont Hotel.

The accomplishments of two Glen Ellyn teens were recognized this year.

Sisters Alexandria and Katherine Bassett, both of Girl Scout Troop 41947, received their Girl Scout Gold Awards after completing a complex series of requirements, including the implementation of a significant community service project.

Photo: Recipient Alexandria Bassett

Alexandria Bassett, 18, received her Gold Award for initiating “The Button Mission,” a project that taught students in Liberia how to make a marketable product that will provide funds to support their education. She created written instructions and a video for the students to learn how to make the bracelets and send 250 bracelets to the school so that each student would receive on as a gift.

“The students now have the ability to create a button bracelet that can be sold to provide funds to pay for their education, help their family and school,” Alexandria Bassett said. “These students will be more active in their community and be empowered to take control of their future.”

Photo: Recipient Katherine Bassett

Katherine Bassett, 16, combined two of her favorite things in her project “Exploring Art and Nature.” Targeted at fourth- through eighth-grade students, she held classes at the Glen Ellyn Public Library. The curriculum she created included creating terrariums, building bird houses, making biodegradable planters, and more.

“My projected created many opportunities for me to reach out to different organizations and develop my skills to work effectively with a number of people to make my project a success,” she said.

The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest award that a Girl Scout ages 14-18 may earn. The leadership skills, organizational skills, and sense of community and commitment required to complete the process set the foundation for a lifetime of active citizenship. Girls complete seven steps to earn the Gold Award, including the completion of a significant service project.

The project fulfills a need within a girl’s community (whether local or global), creates change and is sustaining. The Gold Award recognizes the work of Girl Scouts who demonstrate leadership culminating in 65 hours or more, dedicated towards their service project. Girls complete a minimum of 40 hours in a leadership role before embarking on the final project.

Girls have earned Girl Scouts of the USA’s highest awards since 1916, just four years after the organization’s founding in 1912. These awards include the Golden Eagle of Merit, Golden Eaglet, Curved Bar, First Class and the current Girl Scout Gold Award which was introduced in 1980.

As awareness of the Girl Scout Gold Award continues to grow, so does its prestige. An increasing number of colleges are offering financial incentives to those who earn Girl Scout Gold Awards and admissions counselors view it as a sign of an individual girl’s ability to lead.

Girl Scouts of Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana impacts the lives of more than 69,500 girls and 24,600 adult members in 245 communities in six Illinois counties (Cook, DuPage, Grundy, Kankakee, Lake, and Will) and four Indiana counties (Jasper, Lake, Newton, and Porter). Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place.