Friday, November 11, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m
This year’s 10 National Young Women of Distinction have earned their Girl Scout Gold Award—the highest award in Girl Scouting, earned by fewer than six percent of all Girl Scouts—demonstrating extraordinary leadership in the completion of their community action projects. Each honoree spent one to two years on a project that has had far-reaching effects in her community and beyond. The young women will be honored during this year’s convention at a special awards ceremony on Friday, November 11, from 3:30 to 5:30 p.m. Ingrid Saunders Jones, senior vice president of global community connections for The Coca-Cola Company and chairperson of The Coca-Cola Foundation, will serve as the ceremony’s keynote speaker.
Join us. You’ll see how these girls have already changed the world.
And now—meet Girl Scouts’ 2011 National Young Women of Distinction!
Watch Videos of them explaning their projects.
Vrinda
Girl Scouts Heart of Central California
The project: R.E.S.P.E.C.T Club
Vrinda’s Sacramento community had experienced an influx of refugees from Bhutan, Nepal, and India. Vrinda discovered that many of the teen refugees were attending her high school, and she felt it was her responsibility to stand up and help these teens assimilate to a new culture. She created an after-school tutoring club for the teen refugees and collected thousands of books to form “mini libraries” for their homes. Vrinda also scheduled weekend classes to help students catch up and move ahead in coursework.
Darragh
Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania
The project: The Voices of Time Before They Are Silenced: The Holocaust
Darragh recognized a historical loss with the passing of Holocaust survivors. She created a documentary film featuring the testimony of five Holocaust survivors, so that their stories of hope and survival would remain for future generations. Darragh was responsible for the full production, from interviews to editing, and the film was featured at the Bryn Mawr Film Institute theatre and is still being shown in schools, retirement homes, and synagogues.
Antonia
Girl Scouts of San Gorgonio Council
The project: Moments of Happiness
Antonia has seen Alzheimer's disease in her own home where her grandmother resides. Her goal was to bring awareness to teens about Alzheimer's and to train them to work with seniors that are afflicted. Antonia has spoken publicly at several events, sharing her personal story regarding the disease and the importance of teen volunteerism at memory care facilities. Through her efforts, the first “Junior volunteer” program was started at Five Star Club Senior Center.
Brianna
Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey
The project: Walk for Hope
Briana wanted to focus her leadership project on child abuse after reading the novel Push, a fictional story about a woman overcoming physical, mental, and emotional abuse. She organized “Walk for Hope,” a two-hour-long event to raise awareness about child abuse, which concluded with a 1K walk. Given the public nature of the event, Briana had to learn how to navigate local government to receive permissions and permits. Walk for Hope started with an informative program featuring experts in government and area nonprofits. Participants signed “prevention promises” stating that if they saw signs or had suspicions that abuse was occurring, they would report it to the authorities. Walk for Hope received a proclamation from the mayor of Teaneck, making it an annual event.
Megan
Girl Scouts of Western Washington
The project: Giving Back
Although she didn’t get to meet with them personally (because of her age), Megan recruited male prisoners to make hats, socks, and blankets for the homeless and patients at Shriners Hospital. She sent the men videos with a personal introduction and instructions for creating the knitted items. Given the nature of the project, Megan worked in close collaboration with prison staff and was pleased to hear that prisoners felt they had been part of something positive in their community and had engaged in something of value. The group still meets to knit, and Megan plans on visiting to share her thanks and appreciation once she is of legal age.
Alexis
Girl Scouts—Arizona Cactus-Pine Council
The project: Teens on Trafficking
Alexis learned about human trafficking when she worked with Honduras Girl Guides as part of a GSUSA and WAGGGS twinning project. Wanting to take what she learned one step further, she built the Web site TeensOnTrafficking.org, where she educates visitors on what human trafficking is, safety and prevention tips, and how to ensure that products purchased are not made by slave labor. Alexis has promoted her site and her knowledge of human trafficking at multiple speaking engagements. To date she has received 12,700 visits to her site.
Erin
Girl Scouts of Southern Alabama
The project: Life’s Landing Pad
Erin’s small rural community experienced a tragic loss when a LifeFlight helicopter was unable to land in time to transport an accident victim to a hospital. After conducting some research, Erin decided her community needed a new helicopter landing pad to protect future accident victims. She engaged with her community, writing articles for the local paper, speaking with local businesses, and presenting her plan of action at city council meetings. Erin worked closely with city managers to build the helipad and instructed them in continued care and stewardship of the landing site. To date the helipad has been used on several occasions.
Ariel
Scouts Western Pennsylvania
The project: Improving Stethoscope Hygiene in Two Community Hospitals
Following a middle-school science fair, Ariel became interested in microbiology and the study of infectious diseases. After much research, she designed a new and simple technique to sanitize stethoscopes as a way to prevent the risk of spreading infection. Ariel presented her method to 24 nursing units and promoted her method via posters, e-mail reminders, and screen savers. She even added an element of fun, creating a “Golden Stethoscope” trophy for the unit with the best cultures at the end of her study. Ariel presented her work at the International Screened and Engineering Fair and published it in Family Practice Magazine.
Annika
Girl Scouts—Dakota Horizons
The project: Pallets-A-Plenty
The national homeless crisis became more of a reality for Annika when she observed an increase of homeless people living in her city; she also knew that Dakota weather was extremely harsh. Subsequently, she designed “pallets”—resembling bedrolls and constructed from plastic grocery bags—to provide warmth and which could be easily transported from one location to the next. Annika recruited over 100 volunteers to make 38 pallets using 15,200 grocery bags. She also created a promotional video instructing others on how to get the program up and running in their own communities.
Dara
Holmes, Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois
The project: Face to Face and Virtual Career Fair
In 2009 Southern Illinois University-Carbondale hosted a career fair that was deemed unsuccessful because high-school student participation and attendance was low. Dara knew that a career fair could be very beneficial for students, so she decided to host one of her own, working in close collaboration with her school’s guidance department and inviting 60 diverse professionals and community partners to participate. During the event, students—315 in all, exceeding expectations—learned about different careers and received valuable insight into the type of education needed to obtain desired jobs. Additionally, to ensure that all Carbondale High School students could benefit from her event, Dara built a “virtual career fair” online, which is profiled on her school’s Web site. To date the virtual fair has had 692 visitors. Also notable, due to the success of Dara’s career fair, going forward it will be offered annually by the guidance department.
Special thanks to our sponsors for supporting the 2011 Young Women of Distinction and helping us build girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.
