GOLD AWARD PROJECTS

The projects listed below are all from the Girl Scout websites over the country, and describe projects that earned the Gold Award. Please bear in mind that other councils might have different criteria for Silver Award projects.

My Gold Award Project involved the planning and implementation of a new kind of substance abuse education program for teenagers. The program, called ”A New View” was a day long, intensive program, offering information and guidance about substance abuse, teen pregnancy prevention, and HIV/AIDS awareness. We had professional educators from Planned Parenthood and the Chesterfield County Mental Health Services Board and also brought in young women who were recovering substance abusers, young mothers, and girls living with AIDS. The program is offered yearly now for Cadettes and Seniors in our area.

For my Gold Award, I collected 180 Halloween costumes for the foster children in my area. The kids ranged from 4 months old to 15 years old and everyone received their own costume at a Halloween party. I made games for the party and had pumpkins, decorations, and food donated. All of the 50+ kids as well as their parents had a blast! I worked through the Partnership for Safe Children at the YMCA.

For my Gold Award project, I volunteered at Elm Brook Humane Society in Brookfield. I cleaned animal cages and did anything they needed me to do and I did it. I received my Gold Award after my service project. That’s all I did for my service project.

I worked on my Gold Award project with two other girls, Lisa Talati and Courtney. Our project was entitled Ident-a-Kid and it addressed the issue of children becoming lost and separated from their parents. Anyone who owned a season pass to the park was able to participate in the project which allowed children 3 and under, who did not have a pass of their own, to have their picture taken on their parent's season pass. This provides the parents with a current identification of the child in the event that he or she becomes lost. We took the season pass pictures in the park and also set up a Girl Scout booth whenever we were there.

I held a two days day-camp for Junior Girl Scouts, entitled Multicultural Junior Jamboree. I did extensive research on six countries...their culture, language, food, religions, etc. and put the girls in the middle! They went around in little groups (named for different Greek Gods) they played the games, made the different foods, sang the songs, and even learned how to write in Russian!

For my project, I held a fifties style dance complete with poodle skirts and a volunteer DJ to raise money to buy supplies, such as formula, for a very ill little girl who lives in my community. She has a severe muscular disease that prevents her from living a normal life. I also spent a day with her and her family and learned what it is like to take care of a disabled child.

I created, decorated, and furnished a reading room at the local Boys and Girls Club. Since I love both reading and helping small children, I thought that the project would be for me.

I made a website for my troop to help promote Girl Scouting. I earned all thee computer badges. After earning the badges, I started the process of programming my website. I used microsoft FrontPage to program my website.

I designed a project to recruit Spanish students to tutor during lunch periods and after school. I prepared lesson plans, designed grammar sheets, helped students study for tests and advised creative ways of completing class projects.

I found a project called Birthday in a Box. I recruited the help of others to collect and donate shoe boxes filled with items needed to host a child's birthday party, such as a box of cake mix, a can of frosting, candles, a birthday card, wrapping paper, ribbon, paper products, etc. I collected so many Birthday Boxes, I had to share them with other local service organizations.

I chose a project that deals with our local Foster Parents Association, a non-profit organization dedicated to the support of foster families and the children placed in their care. I organized collection drives to gather baby supplies, such as pacifiers, bibs, diapers, wipes, bottles, rattles, etc. I recruited volunteers to help sort the supplies that were collected and assembled Care Kits, which are diaper bags filled with baby supplies that are given to the foster families who open their hearts and their homes to an infant from our foster care system. I will be attending college to become a Pediatrician.

Because of my interest in pursuing a career in education and my desire to encourage children to read, I chose a project working with the public library. I volunteered to run the Tuesday Tales segment of the library's eight-week Summer Reading Program. I researched the children's section and chose a book for each week that matched the library's theme of humor. I designed a craft activity that matched the theme of each book and recruited volunteers to help me with each session. At the end of the program, I coordinated volunteers to help with food, crafts, games and activities at their closing picnic event.

My project was to raise awareness about a life-saving program called Vial of Life. This is a nationwide program designed to assist emergency medical response personnel in treating a patient in the event they are called to a home and find the person alone and unconscious, or unable to communicate. The Vial of Life is a container that holds vital personal and medical information that is readily available in the home in the case of a crisis or emergency. I solicited the materials needed to prepare Vial of Life kits and recruited the help of other Girl Scouts to help me assemble them. I attended local events to share this information and had enough materials to supply 1,000 local families with a Vial of Life.

I worked with Canine Companions for Independence, which is a national non-profit organization that breeds, raises and trains service dogs, then donates them to people with disabilities other than blindness. I conducted presentations to make the public aware of the benefits this organization brings to those who receive a service dog.

I researched our township's historical sites and designed a 1-hour self-guided automobile tour of more than a dozen sites. First, I promoted the tour to Girl Scout troops as a way to obtain feedback from them to help me revise the final draft of the tour. I prepared a tour guide by taking pictures of each site, included the history of each site and added a map and directions. During the month of March, 2002, in honor of the 90th anniversary of Girl Scouting in the US, I presented 100 copies of the tour guide to the Historical Society.

I remodeled the infant room at the St. Louis Crisis Nursery. I sorted and reorganized the dressers and closet and room. Stripped and re-hung wallpaper and border, fixed curtains, bedspreads and wall decorations so they all matched. The theme in the room is Winnie the Pooh.