Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia Honors 2024 Gold Award Girl Scout Scholarship Recipient

Local Gold Award Girl Scout Elise Cookson earns national scholarship for accessible community cupboards

SAVANNAH, Ga. (September 5, 2024)— Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia is proud to recognize Elise Cookson, whose outstanding work to create accessible community cupboards landed her a $5,000 Gold Award Scholarship from Girl Scouts of the USA. This year Girl Scouts of the USA awarded 111 Gold Award Girl Scouts from across our Movement a scholarship, made possible by the Kappa Delta Foundation and many generous individual donors.

Cookson is one of 19 local members of the 2024 Girl Scout Gold Award class who earned the highest award in Girl Scouts: the Gold Award. Gold Award Girl Scouts make positive impacts on our local communities by addressing some of our most pressing issues. Nationally, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) is recognizing nearly 3,000 members of the 2024 Gold Award Girl Scout class who identified issues in their communities, took action, and found or created solutions to earn their Gold Awards. This year’s class of world-changers devoted 287,000 service hours and invested more than $1.6 million back into their communities, proving they are the empathetic leaders our world needs.

The 2024 Gold Award Girl Scouts demonstrate the breadth of issues American teens feel are most prevalent in society today. Local Gold Award Girl Scouts addressed topics like foster and adoption awareness, helping young adults register to vote, bringing awareness to animal-assisted therapy for children, providing food and essential resources to those facing poverty, and more. For her project, Cookson helped address food insecurity in her community. After observing that the number of impoverished and unhoused individuals and families in her community has been steadily increasing, she came up with a sustainable solution to help reach more people: accessible community cupboards. These easily identifiable food pantries around her city allow constant access to food for those in need.

According to recent research, Gold Award Girl Scouts are more likely to fill leadership roles at work and in their personal lives and are more civically engaged than their non-Girl Scout peers. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Gold Award Girl Scouts agree that earning their Gold Award gave them skills that help them succeed professionally. Seventy-two percent (72%) said earning their Gold Award helped them get a scholarship. Changing the world doesn’t end when a Girl Scout earns her Gold Award. Ninety-nine percent (99%) of Gold Award Girl Scout alums take on leadership roles in their everyday lives.

To view the list of the nearly 3,000 outstanding 2024 Gold Award projects, visit girlscouts.org/goldawardclass.

Girls in grades K–12 can join Girl Scouts any time during the year to begin their Girl Scout journey. As girls grow with Girl Scouts, they learn hands-on leadership skills they’ll use to make their mark through the Gold Award and beyond. To join or volunteer, visit www.gshg.org/join. ?

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ABOUT GIRL SCOUTS OF HISTORIC GEORGIA: Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia is rich in heritage and purpose. The council extends from the North Georgia mountains to the Okefenokee and from the Atlantic coast to the Chattahoochee Valley. Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia serves more than 7,000 girls and 3,000 adults in 122 counties in Georgia, two counties in South Carolina and one county in Alabama.?The council is also the home of our organization’s founder, Juliette Gordon Low, who founded Girl Scouts on March 12, 1912 in Savannah, Georgia, where her birthplace and the historic First Headquarters still welcome thousands of Girl Scouts every year. Girl Scouting gives girls a wide range of experiences to define leadership their way. To join, donate, or learn more, visit www.gshg.org.