Swimming on the other hand is a different story. Lexi can swim as much as she wants because it’s minimal impact exercise that causes her much less pain than other activities. In high school, she joined the Eden Prairie swim and dive team and the synchronized swimming team. She loved the water, and swimming became a true passion.

That passion turned out to be a great starting point for Lexi’s Girl Scout Gold Award project last year. Around the same time she was considering what to do for her project, she met Debbie Townsend, head coach for the Clownfish Swim Club, an organization that provides a swim team environment for kids with disabilities. With Debbie’s encouragement, Lexi began volunteering with Clownfish, and that’s when things started to click in her mind. “I could relate to how much the water is such a healer, and that’s kind of when I was like, oh my goodness, I can relate to these kids. They love to swim. I love to swim. And I think that this is a really cool opportunity for me to come in and work on my Gold Award.”

To complete her Gold Award project, Lexi took action by supporting the Clownfish Swim Club in three different ways. She created a brochure to recruit volunteers, a function that in the past was mainly done by word-of-mouth. She also created ten different lesson plans that will be used by volunteer coaches. And finally, she organized a Swim-A-Thon to collect new and gently used swimming equipment for the club.

To hold the Swim-A-Thon, Lexi rented out Eden Prairie Community Center’s pool for a Saturday afternoon. People could swim with their family or swim laps and enjoy the pool after making a donation. The event was a big success; about 100 people attended and a variety of equipment such as float belts, goggles, nose clips and swimsuits was collected for the Clownfish Swim Club.

Lexi says the best part about doing her Gold Award project was being able to work on something she was passionate about and making a difference in other kids’ lives. “It was really, really cool to see how a weakness of mine and a painful experience of mine—I kind of flipped it around and drove it into a passion, and helped kids who are going through the same thing I am. Now they can also continue to have the joy that water can bring, and they can do it in a safe way.”

To receive the Girl Scout Gold and Silver Awards, girls spend hours planning and implementing projects that innovatively address a need in the community. Each girl must take leadership in planning and implementing her project, working with others in the community to act on her plan.

Linda B. Keene, chief executive officer of River Valleys says, “When our girls achieve this level of accomplishment while still in high school, we cannot wait to see what they will do for their communities in the future.”

All 103 Girl Scout Gold Award recipients and 466 Girl Scout Silver Award recipients were honored during ceremonies in Owatonna and Minneapolis in May and June.

Report Deadline Approaching

To be recognized at the 2013 Silver Award and Gold Award Ceremonies, girls must submit their final reports by March 1. Final reports submitted after March 1 will be recognized the following year. As a reminder, project proposals are accepted year-round.

Silver Award + Gold Award Workshops

Attend one of our upcoming award workshops and discover what it takes to earn the highest awards in Girl Scouting. Learn about the resources available to you through the council, review award information, brainstorm with other girls and identify possible project opportunities in the community.

Upcoming Workshops

• Going for Gold Webinar: March 19, April 17, May 16
• Gold Award at Here and Now: April 20–21, April 20 only
• Silver Award at the Cadette Getaway: March 8, March 9

They chose to focus on Lebanon, because Eva and her father, who is Lebanese, would be traveling there during the summer. They found out about SOS Children’s Villages and researched the orphanages in Lebanon. During her trip, Eva visited a local orphanage and met with Mr. Jean-Paul Salameh, the Executive Director of the SOS Village. She visited the children and learned that shoes are donation items that can always be put to use.

Upon returning from Lebanon, Eva taught Caroline and Amani what she learned during her visit. During National Night Out this summer, the three girls compiled what they knew from research and Eva’s visit to create informational donation booths in their neighborhood. Community members learned about orphanages in Lebanon and donated shoes for the children.

Once all the shipping arrangements were made, the girls sent the shoes and a letter with pictures of themselves to the children in Lebanon. They were proud to complete their project and help other kids in need across the world.

She gathered a group of volunteers from The Rivers, a senior living facility in Burnsville, and engaged them in her project. Along with the seniors, Kjerstin and her friends cut and sewed patterns, and crocheted blankets.

“I chose this project because I have a soft spot for the elderly in my heart. My grandma loved to sew and this is a great way for me to honor her memory,” explained Kjerstin.

The group met weekly at The Rivers, contributing to the more than 100,000 annual donations collected on behalf of Bundles of Love. Everyone really enjoyed the project, especially the seniors. Some women from Kjerstin’s church are still meeting weekly to continue the project.

After graduating from Burnsville High School, Kjerstin plans to attend college at North Dakota State University. She also wants to continue helping people by using the leadership skills she gained from this project and her confidence in connecting people of all generations in her community.

To complete 100 acts of kindness, the girls used their resources to inform the community and other Girl Scouts about the project and encouraged everyone to contribute. They created posters to display in local businesses, started a website for people to post their acts of kindness and created a commercial that has played on the local community access channel.

The girls have been dedicated throughout the project, which has involved many detailed steps and required them to step outside their comfort zones.

“One of the hardest parts for the girls was working with adults and asking the community for help,” explained troop leader, Laura. “When we first started, the girls were really shy to ask businesses to display the posters, but their confidence and courage has really grown.”

Anyone who completes an act of kindness can post on the website, where it is tracked and added to the total. Each post from a community member is extremely rewarding for the girls and gives them the confidence that they will meet their goal.

Have you completed an act of kindness lately? Visit 100 Acts of Kindness to help Hannah, Mattea and Allyson reach their goal by the end of the year.

Sam, Mikenna, Bronwyn and Breezy teamed up for their Silver Award project and brought new light to kids and family members staying at the Ronald McDonald House by creating activity kits.

The kits contained puzzles, paper crafts, bookmark-making supplies, bean bags, outdoor games, a cup game and library books for kids in grades 1–5. In addition to providing the activity kits, the girls also reached out to their sports teams to request food donations for breakfast bags.

In addition, the girls cooked, served and cleaned up after an entire meal for the families at the Ronald McDonald House.

The overall project required a lot of time, planning and community outreach. “I was able to build confidence when it comes to speaking to people I am unfamiliar with and courage to ask for items needed for our project,” explained Breezy.

The girls also learned the important skills of public speaking, organizing teams and gaining community support while earning their Silver Award, the highest award a Cadette Girl Scout can earn. Mikenna described how building these skills will help her later in life: “I have the confidence to make my own appointments, apply for jobs and handle other responsibilities of becoming an adult.”

Last year, Alexa traveled to Tanzania with her mom, Kelly Lynn, and spent a month teaching English, art through literature, math and science to kids ages three to 13.

Researching and planning her Gold Award project and trip took about two years. Prior to the trip, she gave presentations about poverty and education issues affecting Tanzania to schools and churches in her community. She asked kids to clean out their desks at the end of the year and donate the school supplies they no longer needed. With these donations, Alexa and her mom brought four full suitcases (200 pounds) of school supplies and books with them to Tanzania.

Alexa connected a local element to everything she did abroad for her project. She worked with Minnesota school kids to create English-to-Swahili translation books that she gave to Tanzanian children. Each book had a personal message from a child in Minnesota.

In Tanzania, children take a national test at the end of their Class 7 year (equivalent to 8th grade in the U.S.) which determines if they can go on to high school. If they don’t score high enough or can’t afford high school, they can’t go. This is one of the issues that Alexa hoped to address with her project. She knew there might be only a few textbooks in the classroom in Tanzania, but once she and her mom were there, they discovered that the three- and four-year-olds they taught had never seen a story book. “Their teachers didn’t know why you would read a story book to them,” Kelly lynn added. And the middle-school-age kids had never had chapter books.

“By giving them tools to learn like books and art supplies,” Alexa said, “we are better preparing them for these national tests so that when the time comes, they can hopefully get into high school, to give them more opportunities to support themselves later in life.”

While in Tanzania, Alexa lived with a local family and had the opportunity to climb halfway up Mount Kilimanjaro, visit a Maasai village, swim with wild dolphins in the Indian Ocean, tour three national wildlife parks and experience many other new adventures.

Now that she’s back, she is planning to build a library for the school where she taught through continuing donation projects and presentations. Half of the books she collects will be donated locally to a Christmas sharing program. She hopes to inspire others to take action.

“I can see that this could become part of Alexa’s life work,” commented Kelly lynn. “I know it’s really shaped how I look at things. . . . We have kids who cut a pencil in half over there, or share a pencil because there’s not enough pencils to go around.”

For other Girl Scouts who might be starting their Gold Award project, Alexa shared some encouraging words, “Think big,” she said. “There’s nothing you can’t do. If you find an issue or a topic that you feel passionate about and you feel like you can help with it, go for it.”

UPDATE:

If you are interested in supporting Alexa’s work or sending supplies to Africa, submit your information below:

Four Girl Scout Cadettes from Eden Prairie completed their Silver Award this fall by raising awareness about bullying. Together they created videos that were shown in Eden Prairie schools during the month of October.

Ellie, Kaitlyn, Rachelle and Star, members of troop 10785, brainstormed ideas for the videos, wrote scripts and then shot footage of kids in different bullying situations. The videos, posted at YouTube GS Bully Busters, show kids how to respond to each situation and stand up for themselves.

The videos were part of a series of events hosted by the Eden Prairie Disability Awareness Committee and Eden Prairie Schools Parent Teacher Organization for National Bully Awareness Month. As part of their Silver Award project, the girls also volunteered and helped with planning and running the events which included a screening and panel discussion of the movie “BULLY”, a presentation and discussion about what parents can do, PACER’s Run, Walk, Roll Against Bullying, and a day to wear orange to show solidarity against bullying.

To learn more about the events and how the girls helped raise awareness, read the article from Eden Prairie News.

Ellie, one of the Cadettes, also wrote an opinion piece that was published in September. She offers some advice to parents about how to talk with kids about bullying. “Most of the time, we can handle it,” she writes, “but don’t just assume that we can. If we say we want your help, then please help us . . . but whatever you do, please don’t take over. We just want your support.”

Girl Scouts who have recently earned Silver or Gold Awards are particularly good candidates. Girl Scouts can apply online at spirit.prudential.com or nassp.org/spirit. Applications must be submitted to Girl Scouts River Valleys by November 6, 2012.

Girl Scouts of Minnesota and Wisconsin River Valleys can nominate one local honoree for every 1,000 Girl Scouts in grades 5-8 and one local honoree for every 1,000 Girl Scouts in grades 9-12. More information is available at spirit.purdential.com. With additional questions, please email Tiana.Woitas@girlscoutsrv.org.