5-21-2024 11:46am

Cedarburg Girl Scout to Receive Highest Honor Award on Tues., May 21, 2024 at MATC

David Keup Editor

Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast (GSWISE) is recognizing 423 local Girl Scouts for earning the Girl Scout Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards, the highest honors a Girl Scout can earn, during its annual Highest Awards Celebration on Tuesday, May 21 at Milwaukee Area Technical College’s Downtown Campus. The 423 recipients (a 23%+ increase in recipients compared to 2023) contributed more than 12,150 hours of impactful service toward projects that created measurable and lasting change in southeastern Wisconsin communities and beyond.

Cedarburg Girl Scout Anissa G. will receive a Gold Award for her project: Mental Health/Stress-Related Resources for Teens. The Gold Award Display/Dessert Reception will be held at 5:30 p.m. with the Award Ceremony at 6:30 p.m. at the Cooley Theater on N. 6th St. in Milwaukee.

Gold Award Girl Scouts are also eligible to apply for a national scholarship to apply to their post-secondary education. The Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) Gold Award Scholarship recognizes and provides significant financial support to one Gold Award Girl Scout per council. At this year’s Highest Awards Celebration, GSWISE will recognize the council’s three scholarship finalists. The council’s recipient will be selected and announced by GSUSA in summer 2024.

Highest Awards are presented to Junior, Cadette, Senior, and Ambassador Girl Scouts (grades 4-12) who display leadership while engaging in projects that improve their communities through direct action. To earn the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards, Girl Scouts must complete required Journeys, explore the community and identify an issue, work with other Girl Scouts and/or local leaders to make a plan that creatively addresses the problem, and take action that leads to long-term impact.

At each level, Highest Award projects give Girl Scouts opportunities to develop their time management and communication skills, move outside of their comfort zones, gain experience in goal setting, and discover firsthand how to contribute to their communities in meaningful ways that make a difference.

At this year’s Highest Awards Celebration, GSWISE will honor the achievements of:

17 Gold Award Girl Scouts who achieved the highest honor in Girl Scouting by contributing more than 1,360 hours developing and carrying out lasting solutions for issues inside and outside their neighborhoods. To earn the Gold Award, a Girl Scout identifies an issue in their community, drafts a plan to address its root cause(s), and leads a team of volunteers to implement change. This year’s projects included the expansion of local environmental education, the development of accessible STEM resources for elementary and middle school students, the creation of mental health resource guides, and the implementation of art partnerships with local senior living and rehabilitation centers.
89 Silver Award Girl Scouts who dedicated more than 4,450 hours of service through their projects. Girl Scout Cadettes can team up with a small group of fellow Girl Scouts or work independently to research an issue and take action to improve their community. They addressed community issues by creating themed sensory activity bags for children with special needs, building wheelchair accessible tables at camp, developing educational programs around flag etiquette and retirement, and planting butterfly gardens.
317 Bronze Award Girl Scouts (a 49% increase year-over-year) who gave more than 6,340 hours of service to the community through their projects. Junior Girl Scouts discover a need or issue they care about and work together with fellow Girl Scouts to address it. This year’s Girl Scouts focused on solving community issues by organizing pet food and supply collections, making blankets for individuals experiencing homelessness, leading trash cleanups, creating owl nest boxes and bat houses, and building compost bins. Other projects tackled school improvements through building gaga ball pits, enhancing pollinator gardens, and constructing Little Free Libraries.

“These Girl Scouts receiving their Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards are our community’s next generation of leaders. Throughout their projects, these Girl Scouts have demonstrated incredible courage, dedication, and resilience and have built skills like collaboration, organization, and decision making,” said Ana Simpson, CEO of Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast. “Their commitment to not only growing as individuals, but making a positive impact on their communities and beyond is inspirational. Congratulations to all 423 Girl Scouts. We are proud of you.”

To volunteer, reconnect, donate, or join the Girl Scouts, visit gswise.org, email customercare@gswise.org, or call 800-565-4475.

* To stay connected to news and events going on in our area, subscribe to the Cedarburg Area Insider's free daily email newsletter at Cedarburg Area Insider News Digest

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