Our Promise, December 2019

From Green to Gold , Leaders are Born This summer, Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri recognized 885 G . I . R . L .s ( Go-getters , Innovators , Risk-takers , Leaders ) TM who earned the highest community service awards in Girl Scouting – the Girl Scout Bronze, Silver and Gold Awards. each girl devoting a minimum of 50 hours toward making a big change in the community. Several Silver Award projects included creating educational resources for children newly diagnosed with diabetes and organizing and assembling pre- packaged meals for area residents in need. Eastern Missouri Girl Scouts put their ideas into action while earning the highest community service awards in Girl Scouts.

Hundreds of parents, family members, troop leaders and sister Girl Scouts attended the Girl Scout Council’s annual Reflections Ceremony during which 591 young women were awarded the Bronze Award, 250 with the Silver Award and 44 with the Gold Award, a 9 percent increase over last year. The Bronze Award is the highest honor for Girl Scouts in fourth or fifth grade. The award is completed by a girl, a group or a troop with each girl working a minimum of 20 hours toward the project. Some of this year’s Bronze Award projects included planning and promoting a food drive for a local pantry and repainting the bathroom walls at an elementary school. The Silver Award is the highest community service award a girl in sixth through eighth grade can earn. This award is completed by a girl or group of girls working together, with Gold Award Girl Scout Reese Pecoraro Reece is a shining example of what a girl can achieve when she takes matters in her own hands and changes the world for the better. After hearing survivors’ accounts from the shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fl., Pecoraro felt compelled to step up and help ensure local students feel even more secure in the classroom. To earn this prestigious award, she assembled 32 buddy buckets for Pheasant Point Elementary School. Pecoraro designed the buckets in the event of a natural disaster or school shooting so each one includes a Stop the Bleed brochure, tourniquet, gauze, a liter of water, Dixie cups, band-aids, hand sanitizer, Kleenex, puzzles, crayons and stickers. Pecoraro, along with her team of volunteers, equipped each classroom at Pheasant Point with a buddy bucket. For this G . I . R . L ., earning her Gold Award was a chance to embrace her leadership skills and make a positive difference in her community.

Open only to G . I . R . L .s in high school, earning the Gold Award is the pinnacle of the Girl Scout experience. These bold and confident young women have demonstrated extraordinary leadership through a sustainable community service project that addresses real-world challenges at local, national and global levels. Gold Award Girl Scouts dedicate at least 80 hours to their projects spending months, even years, finishing it while simultaneously juggling intense homework and extracurriculars. This year’s Gold Award projects span sewing feminine hygiene products for young women living in West Africa to creating sensory boards for local students on the Autism Spectrum.