The Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn, requires courage, confidence, and character. It requires hours of service, months of planning, and an incredible amount of drive.

This year, 80 Girl Scouts from Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana have shown they have what it takes. Every one of these girls, in their own unique ways, dedicated their time to making a difference in their worlds and beyond.

Join us as we celebrate the accomplishments of these Golden Girl Scouts! View photos from this year’s Gold Award Ceremony in our photo album on Facebook, and learn more about the Gold Award in the informational program booklet on our website.

Part 7: Meet 10 Gold Award Girl Scouts

Continue to follow along to meet more Gold Award girls throughout this blog series!

Miranda P.

For her Gold Award, Miranda partnered with the First Church in DeMotte, Indiana to help sponsor an orphanage in Haiti. She designed and built a place where church members can find out what items are needed, and drop off their donations. To kick off the process, she organized a peanut butter drive with the youth group, and extra jars were donated to the local food pantry.

Jessica P.

Jessica, for her Gold Award project, assisted in the ongoing movement of land restoration by leading her own restoration work day in New Lenox, Illinois. In addition to helping with the cause, she inspired and accumulated more visitors by creating an educational website to promote the work day.

Paige R.

For her project, Paige created an after-school club to help teenage girls find their own self-confidence and girl power. To combat the unrealistic body standards found on social media, the members learned different techniques to help them enjoy life, love themselves, and be the best they can be no matter their shape or size.

Elizabeth R.

The elementary school in Elizabeth’s neighborhood has a growing population of special needs students, but did not have anywhere for these students to take breaks when needed. For her Gold Award, Elizabeth filled carts with items to help them collect themselves and take “brain breaks.” She also made sure these students have a quiet area to regain focus for the rest of the school day.

Emily R.

For her project, Emily made surgical caps for children undergoing surgery. With help from her advisor, she gathered her troop and made 150 to 200 surgical caps for children and infants. She made the caps with cotton, and had options from fun cartoons ranging from superheroes to Disney characters.

Abigail M. R.

For her Gold Award project, Abigail worked with her former middle school to start a successful garden of native plant species. This was both needed and wanted in the community, as there were sparse numbers of plants around her school, including native species.

Kathyrn C. R.

For her project, Kathryn worked with the CareKit Foundation. The foundation collects and distributes toiletries, first aid supplies, socks, washcloths, snacks, and other supplies to homeless shelters, women’s shelters, and others in need. Kathryn encouraged Girl Scouts and others to start making CareKits of their own.

Charlotte E. R.

Charlotte’s Gold Award project aimed to introduced girls to STEM, particularly to engineering and design. For a National Night Out event, she had girls make tin foil boats to race and sink with pennies. She also gave them the opportunity to build card stock boats at a village picnic, and cardboard boats which were raced in the local Independence Day regatta.

Emma S.

Emma brought awareness to the needs of adult cancer patients in lower-income communities. Working with a team at the Rush Copley Cancer Care Center, she provided care packages to the patients, which included a fleece-tied pillow, water bottle, puzzle books, journal, peppermint candies, hand sanitizer, and pens. She also led informative programs where she taught students how to create the care packages, and provided brochures on cancer prevention and how to make donations to the center.

Katherine S.

Katherine’s Gold Award project, Art for All, aimed to provide art supplies to children in financially struggling families. Through community drives, direct donations, and funds from product sales and art contest awards, she collected art supplies to be sorted into kits. The kits were then provided to the Hanover Township Trustees Office to distribute through the food pantry.

As Good As Gold

Bronze. Silver. Gold. The highest honors Girl Scouts can earn.

Will you collect donations for your local food pantry for your Bronze award? What about spreading awareness about global warming for your Silver, or assisting with the refugee crisis for your Gold?

Learn more about earning the Girl Scouts’ Highest Awards.

Don’t miss out on meeting the previously featured Gold Award Girls Scouts!
Part One: Meet the first 10 girls (last names A-B) »
Part Two: Meet the second 10 girls (last names B-D) »
Part Three: Meet the third 10 girls (last names F-H) »
Part Four: Meet the fourth 10 girls (last names H-K) »
Part Five: Meet the fifth 10 girls (last names K-L) »
Part Six: Meet the sixth 10 girls (last names M-P) »