Lafayette teens earn Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouting

                     

 

For Immediate Release                                                         Contact: Amanda Kalina, 303-607-4844

April, 2013                                                                                           amanda.kalina@gscolorado.org

 

 

Lafayette teens earn Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouting

 

This spring, teens from Lafayette are receiving the Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouting. Juliana Elise Burton, Charlotte Anne O’Donnell and Ashley R. Shuler have demonstrated exceptional commitment to taking action to make the world a better place through their community service. The accomplishments of Gold Award recipients reflect extraordinary leadership and citizenship skills that mark them as valuable contributors to their communities and world.

"Earning the Girl Scout Gold Award designation is truly a remarkable achievement, and these young women exemplify leadership in all its forms," said Stephanie Foote, Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of Colorado. "They saw a need and took ownership of helping to develop a solution and took action to make it happen. Their extraordinary dedication, perseverance and leadership is making the world a better place."  

 

Juliana Elise Burton

Lafayette

Monarch High School

Malaria Prevention and Agricultural Support

 

“The core issues that I addressed for my Gold Award project were the rapid increase of malaria and the prominent issue of hunger in the country of Haiti. I did this by first supplying mosquito repellent, insecticide, mosquito nets and malaria information to a local orphanage. The second phase included providing each of the 54 orphans with a gardening gift bag. Each bag contained a pair of gardening gloves, one packet of corn seeds, one packet of a random seed choice, and three tongue depressors to label and identify the vegetables in their garden. I worked with my community to collect these items and my Girl Scout troop assisted in assembling the items that a local group, Love Takes Root, took to Haiti.”

 

Charlotte Anne O'Donnell

Lafayette

Fairview High School

Un-Silencing Stories of Youth Depression

 

“My project benefited those who suffer or have suffered from depression by helping to raise awareness and open up a means of conversation about this important issue with the community. I worked with Colie's Closet, a peer education group that focuses on teaching middle and high school students about depression. I helped build a new presentation on this topic and trained 20 presenters to help the organization reach more students. I also set up a collaboration between Colie’s Closet and Second Wind Fund of Boulder County, which provides free therapy to depressed and suicidal kids in the area. The immediate impacts of my project were often seen in Colie's Closet members who felt empowered to help friends or themselves after training.”

 

Ashley R. Shuler

Lafayette

Peak to Peak Charter School

Mission Musician

 

“Music is one my passions, and for my Gold Award I created an advanced orchestra at my school. Although my school has an orchestra program that works for most students, a few of us have been taking private lessons and are advanced. In addition to playing for school events, such as the National Honor Society induction, the new group also took on tutoring 5th grade students. My project most impacted my school’s music teachers, who are stretched very thin in managing many other musical groups on tight budgets. This group also met the need to challenge students who were at a more advanced level. I learned how to be a music teacher through this process, which will help with my career aspirations.”

 

The Gold Award culminates with a project led by one young woman between 9th and 12th grades who builds a purpose-based team to work with the larger community to meet a need. The focus of a Girl Scouts’ Gold Award project is identifying and researching a community issue she is passionate about, developing a plan to address it in cooperation with her team and community members, establishing a global connection with others and providing sustainability for the project. Of the skills learned through Girl Scouts’ Highest Awards, leadership, organization and critical thinking are the fundamentals of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. The Gold Award has been part of the Girl Scout program since 1916. Some universities and colleges offer scholarships unique to Gold Award recipients, and girls who enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces may receive advanced rank in recognition of their achievements.

Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place. We provide a safe place for girls to explore their world – from science, technology and the environment to healthy living, anti-bullying and financial literacy. For more than 100 years, Girl Scouting has been helping each girl develop her personal leadership skills and make friends that last a lifetime. Girl Scouts is also a great place to enhance job skills and give back to your community as an adult volunteer. In fact, we serve 31,000 girl members and 10,000 adult volunteers across Colorado! New to Girl Scouts are the flexible pathways for participation for both girls and adult volunteers. Come learn more about how you can be part of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience by visiting girlscoutsofcolorado.org, calling 1-877-404-5708 or emailing inquiry@gscolorado.org.

# # #

Girl Scouts of Colorado

1-877-404-5708

girlscoutsofcolorado.org

Twitter (twitter.com/gscolo) -or- Facebook (facebook.com/girlscoutsofcolorado)

Juliana Elise Burton

Charlotte Anne O'Donnell

Ashley R. Shuler