Gold Award Spotlight: Revolutionary Winter Guard Cadets

Virginia Beach Girl Scout Cheyenne has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.

Cheyenne, who has been a part of color guard for seven years, wanted to raise awareness about the sport and give children an opportunity to try color guard. For her project, Cheyenne created a daughter program for the Revolutionary Winter Guard, a color guard program she was a part of. She hosted her program in the summer to prepare children ages six to 17 to participate in the junior winter color guard program. She held practices three times a week, and at the end of the program, the participants performed a show for their friends and family members.

“Color Guard is my passion, and I wanted to share it with my community,” Cheyenne said. “It benefitted the children who participated by giving them a new set of skills. It also benefitted local high school marching bands who gained two new members who marched in my program.”

Through her project, Cheyenne hopes that she enlightened children and her peers with a whole new world of art, music, dance and sports, all in one activity.

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 six percent of eligible Girl Scouts earn the Gold Award, which adds Cheyenne to an elite group of female leaders across the country with the honor.

Gold Award Spotlight: Mental Illness Through Art

Catherine, a Virginia Beach Girl Scout, has earned the Gold Award, the highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.

For her project, Catherine organized an art exhibit at Princess Anne High School dedicated to art created by teens that reflect mental illness. She invited students at her school to create art pieces to represent personal experiences they have had with mental illness, how they feel about the issue and how they have watched their peers struggle.

At the art exhibit, guests viewed the art submissions, learned about mental health from a representative from the National Alliance on Mental Health and took part in stress relieving activities, including coloring. There was also a display made by a member of the Psychology Club at Princess Anne High School about the government’s impact on mental health and how to contact government officials about mental health issues.

“Mental health is a sensitive topic for many people to talk about, making it hard to verbalize how they feel,” Catherine said. “The art exhibit was an opportunity for students to express emotions they might feel when handling anything related to mental health.”

Catherine also created a video that she placed online to help inform people about what they can do to advocate for mental health, as well as an overview of the art exhibit she organized.

Catherine has arranged for members of the Psychology Club to host a mental health art exhibit on an annual basis. As a senior, Catherine will be leading efforts to hold next year’s event and show younger students how to host the event after she graduates.

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 six percent of eligible Girl Scouts earn the Gold Award, which adds Catherine to an elite group of female leaders across the country with the honor.

Gold Award Spotlight: Lucy's Big Idea

Olivia, a Girl Scout from Suffolk, has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.

For her project, Olivia wrote and illustrated a children’s book, Lucy’s Big Idea. The book follows a little girl named Lucy who pursues a friendship with a girl who is hearing impaired. The book teaches children about friendship and kindness, as well as the importance of not being quick to judge others.

“I have been drawing all of my life, and I knew that I wanted to use my talent for my Gold Award project,” Olivia said. “Someone in my church is hearing impaired, and I wanted my project to speak on that subject and lead into the broader topics of kindness and acceptance.”

Olivia hosted story times at libraries in Suffolk, where she read her story to children, taught them basic signs from American Sign Language and led them in a coloring activity on bookmarks she designed featuring characters from her book. In addition, Olivia created a lesson plan to go along with her book that she shared with homeschool educators in her community, and she donated her book to two library systems.

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 six percent of eligible Girl Scouts earn the Gold Award, which adds Olivia to an elite group of female leaders across the country with the honor.

Gold Award Spotlight: Gates County Playground Project

Allison, a Girl Scout from Gates, NC, has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting. 

For her project, Allison addressed the issue of inactivity, leading to poor health and obesity among children. To combat this issue, Allison led a team in building a playground at Abundant Hope Baptist Church. Prior to constructing this playground, there was only one other public playground in Gates County. Through her project, Allison aimed to create a safe place where children can socialize, exercise and express their creativity.

“Educators, doctors and child study teams all around the world recognize that play is important,” Allison said. “When I was growing up, I always wished that there was a playground close to me, and I wanted to help children be more active.”

Allison worked with members of the church congregation to ensure that the playground will be maintained for children to enjoy for years to come.

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 six percent of eligible Girl Scouts earn the Gold Award, which adds Allison to an elite group of female leaders across the country with the honor.

Virginia Beach Girl Scout Works with Local Hospice Care Center

Amanda, a Virginia Beach Girl Scout, experienced a tragedy last year when her aunt passed away. In the days leading up to her passing, her aunt was in hospice care, and Amanda and her family spent time at the hospice home visiting her aunt. While there, Amanda noticed that there were a lot of activities to keep her younger sister occupied, as well as her and her teenage cousins. For her Silver Award project, Amanda decided to honor her aunt by creating a family-friendly environment at a local hospice care center.

At the hospice center where Amanda completed her project, there was a family room, but it was not inviting for families. There was a bookshelf with mostly books for adults, crayons but no coloring books and a television, but no DVD player or DVDs. Amanda spoke with the volunteer coordinator about other needs at the hospice center, and it was requested that she make blankets for children.

Amanda got to work collecting books, coloring books and DVDs. She also collected games. She made a file organizer with cards for every season with personal, meaningful notes on each one. Amanda also gathered her friends, taught them how to crochet, and they made blankets.

"I learned how to turn grief into joy," Amanda said. "Whoever did all of those things for the families at my aunt's hospice center really inspired me to do all of that and more locally."

In order to make sure that she continues to make an impact, Amanda wrote out directions for troop leaders so that they can make crochet blankets or cards as a service project while learning a new skill. Amanda's family has also committed to gathering every year on her aunt's birthday to honor her memory by making more cards for the file and crochet blankets.

Little Free Library by Troop 1694

All of the girls in Troop 1694 love to read. As Brownies, one of their favorite community service projects was holding a book drive to collect books for homeless children. As Juniors, when they gathered to brainstorm Bronze Award projects, they excitedly decided to build a Little Free Library.

With a project in mind, the girls started researching. They took time during a troop meeting to walk to a Little Free Library that had already been built and installed.

“They talked about how the structured had to be designed to withstand the weather, to be waterproof to protect the books, to be easy for children and adults to open and to be aesthetically pleasing so that it would fit into the neighborhood,” Trish Jones, a co-leader of Troop 1694, said.

The girls then downloaded blueprints to build a Little Free Library and visited a Home Depot store, where members of the staff helped the girls construct the library. A few weeks later, they painted the structure. They chose yellow for the inside and navy blue for the outside to correlate with the school colors at The Williams School, where they planned to install the Little Free Library.

Next, the girls held a book drive, and they collected 150 books to fill the library.

The girls worked with the headmaster at The Williams School to choose the perfect location to install the library. They decided to put it near the school’s vegetable garden. In this location, students and their families, as well as members of the public walking down the sidewalk, can easily access the Little Free Library.

“Local support has been very positive,” Trish said. “Both the school community and the neighborhood community are excited about the Little Free Library.”

Members of the troop selected a week during each month to be responsible for maintaining the Little Free Library. They will check it, clean it, refill it and, if necessary, repair it, during their week of responsibility. The girls plan to maintain the Little Free Library for years to come in this way, and they will eventually pass along the maintenance to a younger Girl Scout troop.

“The girls learned that they can do anything that they want to do if they come up with a plan and put their minds to it,” Trish said. “We cannot wait to see what other positive things they will do in the future!”

Gold Award Spotlight: Start Gay-Straight Alliance Across Hampton Roads

Madison, a Norfolk Girl Scout, has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.

For her project, Madison established Gay-Straight Alliance chapters at Maury High School, Grassfield High School and Western Branch High School. She also helped to restart a chapter at Granby High School, and worked with teachers and students at two additional high schools on their plans to start chapters. Through these Gay-Straight Alliance chapters, Madison worked to address discrimination faced by LGBQT students by creating safe places at schools for them to socialize and fight for equality with their straight and supportive classmates.

Madison also hosted a welcoming, inclusive prom for LGBQT high school students and their straight allies. Nearly 100 students from across Hampton Roads attended the prom, many of whom shared that they didn’t feel welcome to attend the prom hosted by their school.

“People are afraid of people that are different from them,” Madison said. “I wanted to create safer schools and healthier communities by increasing awareness and acceptance of LGBTQ high school students.”

Madison arranged for the local chapter of Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays (PFLAG) and the LGBT Center of Hampton Roads to continue to mentor chapters of the Gay-Straight Alliance and make her prom an annual event.

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 six percent of eligible Girl Scouts earn the Gold Award, which adds Madison to an elite group of female leaders across the country with the honor.