Gold Award Spotlight: Feet of Dreams

Girl Scout Ambassador Grace from Edenton has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor and award a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.

For her project, Grace promoted and enforced the benefits of physical activity to middle school students and their parents. Recognizing one reason children do not participate in sports is the inability to afford athletic shoes, Grace reached out to churches in the community to collect shoes to donate to local children. She also made presentations about her project and set up displays at the Chowan County Regional Fair, Providence Baptist Church and other locations in the community.

In order to engage families in physical activities, Grace collaborated with the health and physical education teachers at Chowan Middle School to host a Family Fitness Night at the school. There, Grace spoke to over 100 parents about the importance of physical activity, and families had the opportunity to play games and sports, learn about nutrition and take part in a free glucose and cholesterol screening.

“I believe that children in middle school get preoccupied with keeping up-to-date with social media and forget the importance and need for physical activity,” Grace said. “Getting them interested in physical activity at this age can benefit them for a lifetime.”

Through her project, Grace collected 140 pairs of athletic shoes for students in her community.

The Gold Award requires girls to identify an issue in the community and carry out a Take Action project to address the matter through leadership work. Nationwide, less than 6 percent of eligible Girl Scouts earn the Gold Award, which adds Grace to an elite group of females across the country with the honor.