Eight Lehigh County Girl Scouts were among 160 girls from across a nine-county council territory who received the prestigious Silver Award from the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania.

An in-person ceremony to honor these Girl Scouts took place May 12.

The Girl Scout Silver Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette can earn.

The award represents a girl’s accomplishments in Girl Scouting and her community as she grows and works to improve her life and the lives of others.

Silver Award Girl Scouts choose Take Action projects by individually identifying a community problem, developing a plan to solve it, recruiting a team to assist them, and creating sustainable solutions that last for years beyond their project.

The eight Lehigh County Girl Scouts’ Silver Award Take Action projects are:

·Cecilia R., Troop 689: Held virtual soccer workshops for ages 4-12 through Southern Lehigh Soccer. She then created a YouTube channel for anyone to learn basic soccer skills that will help players grow.

·Megan T., Troop 6075: Built a bench and donation bin for Parkland Cares Food Pantry in Orefield. Megan also made activity bags for the young kids who have to wait in the long lines during food distributions.

·Faith Marie G., Troop 6037: Hand built a bookcase and donated it to Turning Point of the Lehigh Valley. Turning Point is placing it in their safe house.

·Kaitlyn H., Troop 6678: Built Kaitlyn’s Koup, an octagonal shaped duck pen for Gress Mountain Ranch.

·Ava K., Troop 63486: Planted a “Bee” Kind pollinator garden for the Lehigh Community Garden and surrounding Lehigh Valley community with native plants and restored a community garden common area to its former beauty with painting and paver installation. Along with the garden project, she also held a community workshop at a local nursery to spread awareness and a badge earning event for her Cadette Troop.

·Zoey N., Troop 6678: Project Warm Baby Heads. Learned how to crochet baby hats and then taught her team how to make them. The hats were donated to Lehigh Valley Health Network.

·Ariana W., Troop 643: For her Silver Award Project, she created a Hummingbird Zen Garden at the Lehigh Gap Nature Center, Slatington. She created a safe place for hummingbirds to live and eat by building hummingbird houses and planting hummingbird plants. People walking by the garden can sit on the bench, relax, and enjoy the garden.

·Brianna Kathleen W., Troop 8472: She beautified her old school playground by repainting two four-square games and three hopscotches with painted rocks that they can use for the hopscotch. She also painted new games: Caterpillar ABC Game, Foot String Game, and two Tic Ta Toe games. Added these meant more games for the children.

“We are thrilled to honor these 160 extraordinary Silver Award Girl Scouts. In a year of extreme change and uncertainty, they believed in their power to make a lasting impact on their communities today,” Fraites-Dow said, CEO of Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania. “We applaud and celebrate the girls’ courage, confidence and character and their dedication to making the world a better place. They have shown us what true leadership is and we look forward to welcoming them to an elite community of Girl Scouts and outstanding women who share the same drive to build a better world, together.”

For more information on the Girl Scout Silver Award, visit bit.ly/GSEPSilverAwards.