Seven Area Girl Scouts Earn Prestigious Gold Award

Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia proudly honors 19 Gold Award Girl Scouts across the council.

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA (May 1, 2024)— Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia proudly recognizes local Girl Scouts Joii Burks, Elise Cookson, Krysta Merical, Kirsten Ray, Clare Reid, Taylor Rigsbee, and Allannah Rounds as members of the 2024 Girl Scout Gold Award class who earned the highest award in Girl Scouting, the Gold Award. Burks, Cookson, Merical, Ray, Reid, Rigsbee, and Rounds were honored at a formal ceremony at the Fine Arts Auditorium at Georgia Southern University’s Armstrong Campus on Sunday, May 5. Younger Girl Scouts who have earned the Silver or Bronze Award and volunteers who have earned council and national level awards were also honored during the ceremony.?

The 2024 Gold Award Girl Scouts demonstrate the breadth of issues American teens feel are most prevalent in society today.?

Joii Burks, a St. Mary’s Girl Scout from Troop 30550, addressed food insecurity with her project “The Blessing Cabinets.” She built easily accessible cabinets in Camden County that are stocked with food, pet supplies, and other basic needed essentials.

For her project, “Accessible Community Cupboards,” Elise Cookson, a Savannah Girl Scout from Troop 30113, created accessible food pantries around her city so that those in need have access to convenient, clean, and ready-to-eat food.?

Krysta Merical, a St. Mary’s Girl Scout from Troop 30544, created better access to books through Little Libraries placed around the busiest places in her town. With these libraries, anyone can take or donate books at any time.?

Kirsten Ray, a Savannah Girl Scout from Troop 30842, provided support to patients with malignant brain tumors and their families with her project, “A Comprehensive Guide to Understanding Malignant Brain Tumors and How to Help.” She researched different types of brain tumors, treatment options, specialists, and treatment centers and created a website that compiled the information in one location. This website was shared with new brain tumor patients and their caregivers to ease the burden of researching their options.?

Clare Reid, a Sea Island Girl Scout from Troop 30340, worked to address the needs of low IQ foster children who have limited access to resources that give them a creative outlet. During her project, “Arts & Craft All Year Long,” she worked with a local organization that serves foster children to revamp their art room. She then gathered supplies and created instructional notebooks with a year’s worth of arts and craft projects and trained workers to implement the program with the children they served.?

Savannah Girl Scout, Taylor Rigsbee, from Troop 30593, worked on a project she called, “The World’s Your Stage - Own It!” Her project advanced performing arts education within Girl Scouts programming and provided accessible resources to drive passion for the performing arts (theater, dance, music, and musical theater).?

Allannah Rounds, a Midway Girl Scout from Troop 30002, worked with a team to create new trail blazes on popular hiking trails at Girl Scout Camp Low. For her project, “Lighting the Path,” she used GPS tracking maps to create new, clear trail blazes along the trial so that they are easy to follow. She also worked with her team to put a legend at the beginning of each trail to tell where the trail leads as well as the total distance of the trail.?

Gold Award Girl Scouts make positive impacts on our local communities by addressing some of our most pressing issues. They become innovative problem-solvers, empathetic leaders, confident public speakers, and focused project managers. They learn resourcefulness, tenacity, and decision-making skills, giving them an edge personally and professionally. As they take action to transform their communities, Gold Award Girl Scouts gain tangible skills and prove they’re the leaders our world needs. The 2024 Gold Award Girl Scout class identified issues in their communities, took action, and found or created solutions to earn their Gold Awards, addressing real-life problems such as environmental sustainability, racial justice, mental and physical well-being, and gender inequality in STEM.?

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 learn more about Girl Scout Highest Awards, visit the?Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia website. ?

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 8,000 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 learn more, join, volunteer, or donate, visit?www.gshg.org.