GOLD AWARDS
Girl Scouts get Gold AwardsBY EMILY HARVEY ON OCTOBER 18, 2013
There is a lot more to being a Girl Scout than earning badges, being sweet and selling cookies, especially when it comes time to complete Gold Awards. Gold Awards are not just one-day service projects, but programs started by Girl Scouts in their community to make a difference and better it for years to come. Most girls spend 60 to 80 hours over the course of a year working on the completion of their Gold Awards.
“People don’t realize how strenuous it is; you have a lot of prerequisites you have to do, and it can’t just be like a service project,” Girl Scout troop leader Wanda Needell said. “It has to be something that really makes a change, like revolutionizes something or makes a difference, a long-term difference.” Senior Violet Noe finished her Gold Award over the summer and is currently waiting on her service to be reviewed and approved by the Gold Award committee. Noe was able to complete her Gold Award right here at Rose. “For my project I built two benches with Mr. Joyner, a shop teacher here at Rose, one for the baseball team, one for the softball team,” Noe said. “And then as part of my project including the community I did a class here at Rose in Mr. Joyner’s shop where we taught some people some basic shop skills such as safety skills, the basic tools and procedures they would follow.” Before Noe could start her project she had to set up meetings with former Rose principal, Charlie Langley and Joyner. Once she began working, it was not a quick award to earn. “Building the benches was probably the most time consuming; I came to Rose three or four times for that and worked the whole day and I did the class in one day,” Noe said. “I did a lot of meetings for it, I had to meet with Mr. Langley before the project and Mr. Joyner; all together it took about 60 hours.” Some Rose Girl Scouts are in the midst of their projects or just figuring out what they want to do for their community. “We’ve set up the plan [for the Gold Award], I’ve talked to my mentor Mrs. Lane, she works at my church; I go to Oakmont and behind us are these apartments that we recently bought and we do a lot of missions back there and she is the director of that,” junior Lacy Ellen Whicher said. “She lives back there and works with all the kids and I’ve helped out with her before doing camps, and I’m going to do my own camp; I’m going to do a math and reading camp and I’m going to do a math drive.” Whicher hopes to complete her Gold Award before senior year and is excited to get started. “It’s recommended to be completed by senior year but I’m going to do it over Christmas break hopefully, as long as the committee approves of it, but I’m hoping to get it done by then because it’s really hard to get it done senior year,” Whicher said. “I’m very excited but I’m also very anxious and overwhelmed because there’s a lot to be done that has not been done; I want to get it done and get started because I know I’m going to love it. “ Sophomore Caroline Kraczon and her troop are just beginning to brainstorm their ideas but are already eager to start. “I want to do something probably with kids in underprivileged areas; I’m not really sure exactly what but I’m still thinking about it,” Kraczon said. “We’re all in the process of coming up with what we’re going to do; I hope by the end of this year [the gold awards will be finished].” Gold Awards are not only learning experiences for the Girl Scouts who earn them but also for the receivers on the other end of the project. They benefit not only the community as a whole but also individual members who are directly affected by these programs. “It has to be something that gets at the root and really changes things,” Needell said. “It has to have sustainability where you don’t just do it for you and for that year but you make sure it stays on.” Each girl scout who is currently working on their project or has completed it agrees that it is a very rewarding experience and they became much closer to all the people with whom they came into contact. HTML Comment Box is loading comments...
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