2024 Reflections Program

Elizabeth Paterson For her Girl Scout Gold Award project, Elizabeth looked at diversity and inclusion issues within the St. Louis metro region and examined how she could increase the awareness and education available on these issues to those within her school community. After joining FOCUS St. Louis, one of the region’s premier nonprofit leadership organizations, Elizabeth began a monthly column for Nerinx Hall’s newsletter, Common Ground, where she shared her findings from FOCUS St. Louis each month. By educating her school community, including teachers, students, and administrators, they learned ways to directly combat exclusion and barriers within their communities and school. “I now have a more open mind set. I learned a lot about being the leader of a big project, along with organization skills and leadership skills to guide my team. This project opened my eyes to what’s happening in my community around me.” Lexi Rechek Lexi wanted to teach about proper hand hygiene and support her church community through her Gold Award project, so she set out to complete a much-needed renovation of two restrooms that served her congregation. Lexi replaced the bathroom flooring, patched up holes in the walls, painted murals, refreshed the counter space and added new bathroom accessories. She transformed the old spaces into a unisex restroom and a family restroom, which accommodates families with young children and those with disabilities. She also gave a special sermon to the Sunday School children during one of the services about proper hand washing, sung to the tune of “Jesus Loves Me.” “I loved telling everyone about my project and I smile every time I do. I grew my leadership skills by working with a large team and developed patience for working with adults and dealing with delays. I also developed multi tasking skills by working on several parts of the project at once with different teammates.”

District 6, Troop 1964 Nerinx Hall 13 years in Girl Scouts Milestones Girl Scout Bronze Award Girl Scout Silver Award 13-Year Girl Scout Graduating Girl Scout

District 8, Troop 782 Parkway North High School 13 years in Girl Scouts

Milestones Girl Scout Silver Award 13-Year Girl Scout 2023 Graduate Girl Scout