Lovett School issued the following announcement on Apr. 4.
The Gold Award, as I always explain, is the highest award that a Girl Scout can earn. It’s basically the Girl Scout equivalent to the Eagle Scout. However, it has virtually no name recognition outside of the Girl Scout community. Over the almost three-year course of my Gold Award project, as I was reaching out to and working with various members of the Greater Atlanta community, I probably found myself having to explain what the award is over a hundred times. Even after I tell people about my project, they’ll often refer to it as the “Golden Award,” “Golden Medal,” or “Gold Star Award.”
So, for those of who don’t already know, here are the basics of the Gold Award: To achieve this honor, a Girl Scout must identify a challenge or opportunity in her community, research the root causes of it, and lead a team initiative to address it. She must log at least eighty hours of work on her project (although mine ended up taking more than twice that long!) and ensure that it will be sustainable past her involvement. This process fosters the development of leadership, collaboration, organization, and so many more invaluable skills.
On March 6, 2022, three members of Lovett-affiliated Girl Scout Troop 11461 were officially honored for their projects at the Girl Scout Gold Award Ceremony. This ceremony was the culmination of thirteen years of scouting for each girl, as we all joined as Daisies in first grade.
I’m not sure why the Gold Award doesn’t get as much press as the Eagle Scout, but I hope that by reading about Phoebe Ellis, Mary Ashley Jacoppo, and Katie Maier, you will come to understand just how incredible Gold Award Girl Scouts really are.
Phoebe Ellis
For her Girl Scout Gold Award project, called “Stories on the Go: A Rolling Literacy Cart,” Phoebe worked with the Ansley School, a tuition-free private school in Atlanta for students who have experienced homelessness. At the point when she started her project, the school was operating in a basement of a church, and the students had limited reading materials because there was no space for a library.
After learning about the Ansley School and the challenges it was facing, Phoebe connected with the school administrators to see how she could address some of their needs. She decided to build a rolling literacy cart for the kids that would give them access to a wider variety of books without taking up much of the school’s limited space.
Phoebe designed a rolling cart and went to a carpenter to have it constructed. She filled the cart with some lightly used books, as well as over 150 new books which the school requested. Her project will be sustained through her church community, who will continue to donate books through their vocation bible school each year.
Mary Ashley Jacoppo
For her Girl Scout Gold Award Project, called “The Walton Service Spirit Club,” Mary Ashley worked with students in the special needs program at Walton High School. Mary Ashley saw that of the over eighty student-led clubs at her school, none of them were readily advertised for the students in the special needs program, so she decided to create a club that would give these students an opportunity to engage in their school and local community.
The fifteen members of the Walton Service Spirit Club meet every month to work together on service projects. Some of their recent activities have included making holiday cards for police officers, goodie bags for the lunch and custodial staff, and appreciation cards for their school administration.
Mary Ashley has really enjoyed having the opportunity to help the students feel a greater sense of belonging. A teacher at her school has committed to carry on the club after Mary Ashley graduates so that the students in the special needs program continue to have this space to connect with each other and their broader community.
Katie Maier
For my Girl Scout Gold Award, called “Picture Your Path,” I collected artwork from local kids and transformed the designs into a series of eight murals along local walking/biking trail Path400. My goal was to make a public art display to enhance the beauty of our natural surroundings while bringing together my community and inspiring young student artists to create art, and I partnered with the nonprofit organization Livable Buckhead to help realize my vision.
I started my project right after finishing ninth grade, and I’m glad to have gotten a head start, because I never could have anticipated the obstacles I encountered. The culminating event of my project was originally designed to be an art celebration event. However, it was scheduled for the end of March 2020, and the pandemic put it on hiatus, as it did so many other Gold Award project. Over the next year, I restructured my project to focus more on involving the kid artists in the actual painting of the murals, inviting them to the mural site to help transform their designs into large-scale pieces of art. Even when a permit issue that was out of my control delayed my project once again, I adapted to the ever-changing situation, and because of that, there is a permanent series of murals along Path400.
Through the obstacles I faced in making my project a reality, I came to learn that my original vision for my project does not have to be my only vision. When the situation changes, I have to change, too, because flexibility and adaptability is a part of leadership.
Original source can be found here.
Source: Lovett School
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