Great Gold Award Project

As an interviewer for the Gold Award applicants, I am in awe of these girls!  Most have been in Girl Scouting over 10 years, and they just love it!  Most have a very clear understanding of their projects. Their enthusiam and excitement just leak out of them!  They just make me proud!!!

And then, there I am, a cheerleader for most, and the wet blanket for some. I'm the one who gets to ask, "what are you doing besides collecting supplies for the homeless shelter?"  I ask "what service projects have you done in the past?"  And then I get to ask, "How is their project going to make a bigger difference?"  How are they going to reach outside their comfort zone and be a leader?  And I get to ask the best question of all that I got from Lisa Hinshaw, "what's the hardest part going to be?"

One Gold girl had a passion for increasing literacy in the local elementary school. Her Silver Award Project had been to create and put on a play addressing this concern. Kayla had continued to work at the school after her Silver was completed, reading to the kids at story hour, volunteering her time.  It was a natural step for her to choose literacy at that school for her Gold.

Her root issue was literacy, recognizing that kids without English speaking parents at home were less likely to read English well, and learn to LOVE to read.  Kayla worked with the librarian and piggy-backed her gold project onto the library's Open House night.  She created 8 booths at her Literacy Fair, and she staffed them with volunteers form her high school, who did it for the service hours!  Her younger sister, a couple former troop girls and gal-pals helped as well.  Kayla organized the event, got together with the start up team to leader them in creating all the pieces, gathered materials and put on a fabulous fair!  Plus, she and her volunteers put on her Silver Award play again.  She had those 60 little kids sitting on the floor, completely enthralled. Plus, they had take away pieces on reading form the fair to use in the future.

But she wasn't done yet!  She completed an interactive computer program that the kids can use at the library at any time!  A great sustainable piece that makes a difference.  Truly, Kayla identified her issue, used her leadership skills, engaged volunteers from outside her troop, provided a huge benefit for a group of kids, and figured out a way for her work to benefit even more kids in the future.  a GREAT Gold Award Project finished just in time to list on her college applications this fall.  I am so proud of her!

(See the link to her video and some photos on the Great Gold tab.)