9 Berks County GSEP Girl Scouts Receive Prestigious Gold Award

This year, 63 Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania (GSEP) Girl Scouts from across its 9-county council territory earned the prestigious Girl Scout Gold Award—the highest achievement in Girl Scouting—during the 2020–2021-member year, of which 9 were Berks County Girl Scouts.

The Girl Scout Gold Award recognizes Girl Scout Seniors and Ambassadors (grades 9-12) who demonstrate extraordinary leadership through sustainable and measurable Take Action projects. The Gold Award is the culmination of a girl’s leadership ability, time management, creativity, initiative, and a significant mastery of skills. Gold Award Girl Scouts individually identify a community problem, develop a plan to solve it, recruit a team to assist them and create sustainable solutions that last for years beyond their project. Gold Award Girl Scouts are eligible for multiple scholarships from colleges and universities and are able to advance a rank when they enlist in the U.S. armed forces.

• Sidney B.
  Berks County
  Troop 1094, SU 760
  High School & Graduation Year: Class of 2021
  Future Plans: I am pursuing a degree in media arts/television production at Long Island University Brooklyn.
  Girl Scout Awards & Achievements: Girl Scout Bronze Award, Girl Scout Silver Award
  Gold Award Project Title: Safety Around the Town
  Gold Award Project Description: I worked with my team to create safety education workshops for youth ages 2-8. I produced videos for three different safety topics and corresponding workshop boxes with lesson plans and educational materials.
• Sarah D.
  Berks County
  Troop 1773, SU 747
  High School & Graduation Year: Class of 2021
  Future Plans: I am studying pre-med at Boston College.
  Girl Scout Awards & Achievements: Girl Scout Bronze Award, Girl Scout Silver Award, Service to Girl Scouting Bar, Community Service Bar
  Gold Award Project Title: Peaceful Pillows
  Gold Award Project Description: My Gold Award project addressed the issue of children in foster care having few, if any, belongings to call their own. I decided to create mini pillows with gender neutral patterns. I engaged my team to help lead workshops in the community to prepare fabric and sew the pillows.
• Mia D.
  Berks County
  Troop 1491, SU 766
  High School & Graduation Year: Class of 2021
  Future Plans: I am attending Colorado Mesa University and plan to attend law school.
  Girl Scout Awards & Achievements: Girl Scout Bronze Award, Girl Scout Silver Award, Service to Girl Scouting Bar, Community Service Bar, Leader in Action, Leadership Torches
  Gold Award Project Title: Bee Hotel
• Amelia F.
  Berks County
  Troop 1501, SU 754
  High School & Graduation Year: Class of 2022
  Gold Award Project Title: Wildlife Area in Stanton Clay Park
  Gold Award Project Description: My Gold Award aimed to improve wildlife within Stanton Clay Park and create a welcoming environment for the animals.  My team and I built an area specific to native birds and wildlife by adding native plant species and birdhouses so they would have food for all seasons and habitats.
  Gold Award Project Description: My Gold Award addressed the health and safety of the dwindling bee population.  I hosted educational sessions for community members via Zoom and created sustainable bee housing, or bee hotels, to aid the bee population.
• Mary G.
  Berks County
  Troop 1625, SU 754
  High School & Graduation Year: Class of 2021
  Future Plans: I am studying architecture at University of North Carolina at Charlotte
  Girl Scout Awards & Achievements: Girl Scout Silver Award
  Gold Award Project Title: Tulpehocken Music Improvement
  Gold Award Project Description: I successfully set up a centralized online system (Charms Office Assistant) for the Tulpehocken Jr/Sr High School music department, which will help the teachers keep track of current student and parent information, as well as their involvement in the music department. This system also allows TPMA to better organize the finances and fundraisers, and it allows the students and parents to interact easily with events and needs in the music department.
• Katherine H.
  Berks County
  Troop 1491, SU 766
  High School & Graduation Year: Class of 2021
  Future Plans: I am attending Wake Forest University and plan to pursue a career in law.
  Girl Scout Awards & Achievements: Girl Scout Bronze Award, Girl Scout Silver Award, GSEP Girl Delegate, Take the Lead Presenter
  Gold Award Project Title: Lessons in Leadership
  Gold Award Project Description: My project aimed to provide a free way for anyone to learn more about leadership and what characteristics successful leaders have. I created a website and a YouTube series called ‘Lessons in Leadership’ that anyone can access, regardless of age, gender and socio-economic limitations. I interviewed eight local leaders in my community who excel in leadership and used these interviews to review eight topics that all leaders possess.
• Abigail M.
  Berks County
  Troop 1773, SU 747
  High School & Graduation Year: Class of 2021, Berks Catholic High School
  Future Plans: I am attending the University of Utah and plan to become a midwife.
  Girl Scout Awards & Achievements: Girl Scout Bronze Award, Girl Scout Silver Award
  Gold Award Project Title: St. Paul’s Mesmerizing Murals
  Gold Award Project Description: My Gold Award aimed to encourage children to read more. My team and I painted murals at St. Paul’s to immerse kids in the scenes from classic children’s books every day.
• Emmerson P.
  Berks County
  Troop 189, SU 762
  High School & Graduation Year: Class of 2021
  Future Plans: I plan to pursue a career in veterinary medicine.
  Gold Award Project Title: ZooCREW Leadership Team – Creating Student Leaders at the Philadelphia Zoo
  Gold Award Project Description: For my Gold Award Project, I created a student led governance team to create leadership opportunities within the ZooCREW program at the Philadelphia Zoo. The new ZooCREW leadership team created workshop curriculum, educational opportunities for students, and connected students with different members of staff around the zoo.
• Alexis S.
  Berks County
  Troop 1555, SU 763
  High School & Graduation Year: Class of 2021
  Future Plans: I plan to enter the Army National Guard and pursue a career in nursing or the medical field.
  Girl Scout Awards & Achievements: Girl Scout Bronze Award, Girl Scout Silver Award, Leader in Action
  Gold Award Project Title: Outdoor Community Food Pantry
  Gold Award Project Description: My Gold Award aimed to aid people suffering from food insecurities and hunger in my community. I built an outdoor free food pantry at St. Paul’s UCC in Pottstown.

“We are proud to recognize and celebrate the 63 inspiring Girl Scouts who have earned the prestigious Gold Award,” stated Kim E. Fraites-Dow, CEO of GSEP. “While this was a year of extreme change and uncertainty, by believing in their own power and voice, these girls persevered through it all and saw their ambitious projects to completion. Through their capstone Take Action projects, these Girl Scouts have championed the five fundamental Girl Scouts leadership outcomes: developing a strong sense of self, displaying positive values, seeking challenges and learning from setbacks, forming and maintaining healthy relationships, and becoming community problem solvers. Now, these Girl Scouts are among an elite community of dreamers who embody courage, confidence, and character as they continue to uphold the Girl Scout promise of making the world a better place.”

The Girl Scouts’ Take Action projects provide benefits with a sustainable impact on their communities, emphasizing the remarkable power of Girl Scouts. Projects include sewing pillows to prevent chemotherapy patients from discomfort around their catheters while wearing a seatbelt, creating a summer camp program to teach children about hydration, and filming a documentary and hosting workshops to educate others about gun control. Together, this year’s Gold Award Girl Scouts completed more than 5,100 leadership hours of community service (each project requires at least 80 hours of community service). Based on the latest service worth estimate of one volunteer hour ($28.54), this represents a value of more than $146,124.80 in community problem-solving investment for the nine counties that GSEP serves.

For more information on the Girl Scout Gold Award, visit https://bit.ly/GSEPGoldAward.

###

About Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania
Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania (GSEP) is the largest girl-serving organization in Pennsylvania and builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. What was started in 1912 in Savannah, Georgia by founder Juliette Gordon Low as one small, yet dedicated troop of diverse girls has grown into 2.8 million Girl Scouts across the U.S. today. GSEP serves nearly 30,000 girls in partnership with more than 15,000 volunteers in Berks, Bucks, Carbon, Chester, Delaware, Lehigh, Montgomery, Northampton and Philadelphia counties. Today, 80 percent of women in leadership and executive roles in the U.S. were Girl Scouts. Girl Scout alum comprise 70 percent of women in the U.S. Congress. For further information about Girl Scouting, how to join, volunteer, reconnect, or donate, call 215-564-2030 or visit www.gsep.org. Follow @GirlScoutsEPenn on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook.

Follow @GirlScoutsEPenn on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.