22 Girl Scout Gold Award winners recognized at Reflections Ceremony

The Girl Scout Gold Award is a national award, a personal challenge and the highest award that a Girl Scout Senior or Ambassador may choose to pursue.

This year, 22 Girl Scouts of Eastern Missouri (GSEM) received their Gold Awards at the annual Reflections ceremony, which took place at Maritz® in Fenton on June 2.

Earning The Girl Scout Gold Award requires a suggested 80 hours of planning and implementing a challenging, large-scale project that is innovative, engages others and has a lasting impact on its targeted community with an emphasis on sustainability.

Since 1916, the Girl Scout Gold Award has represented excellence and leadership for girls everywhere. Earning the Girl Scout Gold Award puts winners among an exceptional group of women who have used their knowledge and leadership skills to make a difference in the world (less than one percent of all Girl Scouts earn the Girl Scout Gold Award).

Below are excerpts from local Girl Scouts about their Gold Award projects:

Ashley Banze

Ashley's Girl Scout Troop volunteers one weekend every year at Bunker Hill Retreat.

For her Gold Award project, Ashley wanted to make a particular trail at the retreat even better. She learned how to do the proper wood-working skills, including routing, staining, painting and installing that allowed her to make a trail sign for Missouri State Teachers Association (MSTA) Bunker Hill Retreat.

Ashley cleared the trail of excess plants, making it even safer for hikers. At a MSTA convention, Ashley announced to a group of 250 educators that the trail would be named after Kent King, the retiring executive director of Bunker Hill Retreat.

Madison Berviller

For her Gold Award project, Madison wanted to provide kids with a place to escape, calm down and get away from the stress in their lives.

To do that, she created a therapeutic fairy garden at the St. Louis Crisis Nursery. She researched and found therapeutic plants to place in the garden that would provide a calming environment for the children. Madison and her team made fairy houses, added stepping stones and created an activity binder.

Kelsey Buford

Kelsey, in conjunction with the National Honor Society at Wentzville Holt High School, created a health and fitness day camp for elementary school girls.

The camp included morning sessions with a nutrition station and a session about warming-up before exercising. In the afternoon, girls could choose from several different sports and activities. To help with the camp, Kelsey recruited a team composed of athletes, a physical education/health teacher and a ProRehab athletic trainer.