2025 GSEM Adult Recognition Handbook

Gold Laurel Award

Award Description: The Gold Laurel Award recognizes a registered member who made a superior contribution of outstanding, unusual and lasting service in support of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience.

Submission Example:

Emily Trefoil is a dedicated Girl Scout volunteer, serving as a troop leader, Troop Organizer, and Neighborhood Manager in District 19 over the past seven years. Last year, she told the District Service Team that our rural area needed a Girl Scout Day Camp. She said that other area youth organizations ran very successful summer day camps, and she wanted Girl Scouts to also be represented as a summertime option for kids so that Girl Scouts could stay relevant in our area. There are no other Girl Scout Day Camps within 75 miles of our community. Emily took the lead on this project, gathering a committee and working with Council to create Pebble Springs Day Camp. She advertised this new day camp in area schools and churches. She also volunteered to be the Day Camp Director, since no one else was stepping up, and trained all of the Camp Aides and Unit Leaders. I don’t know how Emily found the time to do it all! In addition, Emily made sure all the fantastic activities that her day camp committee imagined for the girls to do followed the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. Campers were given choices in their activities as often as was practical, and everyone got their hands dirty trying new things. She did not just sit back and let others run the day camp units—she pitched in herself and ran the Brownie unit, which was the biggest unit at Pebble Springs. In doing this, she personally delivered the Girl Scout Leadership Experience to those Brownies. During its first year, Pebble Springs had over 50 attendees across five units, which was a marvelous outcome considering how sparsely populated our area is. Our district will definitely be hosting this day camp again next year, and hopefully for many years after. I believe that the success of Pebble Springs comes down to the hard work Emily put in from start to finish. Because of this, Emily Trefoil deserves the Gold Laurel Award.

Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri 25