Five graduating High School Seniors in Girl Scout Ambassador Troop 710 have earned their Gold Awards, the highest award in the Girl Scout program.  Pictured are Mim Blower (Bishop Ireton), Emma Lehner, Natalie Hurd, and Nell McKeown (West Potomac). Catie Liebeck, a senior at West Potomac, was not available for the photo.

The Girl Scout Gold Award represents the highest standard of excellence and leadership.  Girls earn this award by completing a series of prerequisites leading up to a final Gold Award “take action” project.  This community service project is one that the Girl Scout develops herself. She must identify an issue, gather a team, create a plan, and implement the project.  Each project must involve a minimum of 80 hours of the Scout’s time and must be original and self-sustaining.

Nell and Catie each designed and implemented entirely new classes to teach the sport of crew that were tailored specifically for high school and middle school P.E. curricula. “Creating a Lifelong Row-mance," was Nell’s project and she created a curriculum to teach crew to high school students.  Catie’s project, “Row Long, Live Strong,” addressed the issue of childhood obesity in the community and introduced a rowing curriculum into the Sandburg Middle School P.E. program.

Mim, Emma and Natalie each completed their projects working with the children who live in the Creekside Community Apartments on Janna Lee Ave.   Mim’s project was called, “Good Choice, Bad Choice”: a two week long program that taught the children basic safety and the primary functions of the EMS.

Emma led a program called, “Sew What?” in which she held a series of classes for elementary school-age girls in which issues such as self-esteem, body-image and leadership were discussed. At the end of each of the 8 sessions, the girls drew something about the discussion on a fabric square. Emma sewed 2 quilts and the group decided to keep one for the Creekside Community Center and donated the other one to United Community Ministries (UCM) to give to a family. Natalie’s project, “Change Your Planet,” was a week-long program for children, which focused on environmental issues, both in the community and around the globe, and what can be done in the community to raise environmental awareness.

Submitted by Kathy Lehner.