Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania recently announced 63 girls from across its nine-county council territory earned the prestigious Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouting, during the 2020-21 member year.

The in-person ceremony to honor these Girl Scouts took place this May.

Kim E. Fraites-Dow, CEO of GSEP, and members of the board of directors were at the ceremony to share remarks and honor the girls with this prestigious award.

The Girl Scout Gold Award recognizes Girl Scout Seniors and Ambassadors (grades nine-12) who demonstrate extraordinary leadership through sustainable and measurable Take Action projects.

The Gold Award is the culmination of a girl’s leadership ability, time management, creativity, initiative, and a significant mastery of skills.

Gold Award Girl Scouts individually identify a community problem, develop a plan to solve it, recruit a team to assist them and create sustainable solutions that last for years beyond their project.

Gold Award Girl Scouts are eligible for multiple scholarships from colleges and universities and are able to advance a rank when they enlist in the U.S. armed forces.

The following five Lehigh County Girl Scouts were among the 63 girls who received the prestigious Gold Award.

·Kelesa K. of Fogelsville and Troop 6006: her Gold Award project titled “Bee the Change,” aims to combat the effect of climate change on bees by encouraging people to plant bee-friendly wildflowers and make bee-friendly gardens.

She taught younger Girl Scouts about the need to protect the bees, and how to make seed bombs they could plant in their yards.

Kelsea’s Girl Scout awards and achievements include Girl Scout Bronze Award, Girl Scout Silver Award and SU Girl Delegate.

She is graduate of the Class of 2021 and is attending Penn State University.

·Madison K. of Allentown and Troop 6700: Her Gold Award project is titled Theatre Department Library.

For her Gold Award, she created a system to manage and organize the plays for the theater department at her school.

Together Madison and her team cataloged 795 different plays that students can now easily access and manage.

Madison’s Girl Scout awards and achievements include Girl Scout Silver Award, GSEP Girl Delegate, Community Service Bar and Take the Lead.

She is studying speech therapy at DeSales University.

·Jenna F. of New Tripoli and Troop 682: Her Gold Award project titled Something In My Pocket aims to help students with anxiety, ADHD, Sensory Integration Disorder, and autism by helping them to focus with the use of fidgets.

She created fidgets for elementary school students to use during class. Their teacher reported that students were able to focus and completing their tasks more effectively.

Jenna’s Girl Scout awards and achievements include the Girl Scout Bronze Award, Girl Scout Silver Award and GSEP Girl Delegate.

She is a graduate of the Class of 2022 and plans to attend college and pursue a career in speech and language pathology.

“Through their capstone Take Action projects, these Girl Scouts have championed the five fundamental Girl Scouts leadership outcomes: developing a strong sense of self, displaying positive values, seeking challenges and learning from setbacks, forming and maintaining healthy relationships, and becoming community problem solvers,” Fraites-Dow said.

“Now, these Girl Scouts are among an elite community of dreamers who embody courage, confidence, and character as they continue to uphold the Girl Scout promise of making the world a better place.”

The Girl Scouts’ Take Action projects provide benefits with a sustainable impact on their communities, emphasizing the remarkable power of Girl Scouts.

Projects include sewing pillows to prevent chemotherapy patients from discomfort around their catheters while wearing a seat belt, creating a summer camp program to teach children about hydration, and filming a documentary and hosting workshops to educate others about gun control.

Together, this year’s Gold Award Girl Scouts completed more than 5,100 leadership hours of community service (each project requires at least 80 hours of community service).

Based on the latest service worth estimate of one volunteer hour ($28.54), this represents a value of more than $146,124.80 in community problem-solving investment for the nine counties that GSEP serves.

For more information on the Girl Scout Gold Award, visit bit.ly/GSEPGoldAward.