Highest Awards & Volunteer Recognition

On Saturday, November 5, 2022, GSU honored seven Gold Award Girl Scouts, 44 Silver Award Girl Scouts, four Cornelia Benton Scholarship recipients, GSUSA Gold Award Scholarship recipient, and 31 adult awardees at the Annual Recognition of Excellence Awards Ceremony. (Service units honored the 68 Bronze Award Girl Scouts with ceremonies of their own.)

The Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards are the Highest Awards a Girl Scout can earn. Girl Scouts complete a Take Action project that requires leadership and community engagement to solve a problem with a sustainable solution and a measurable impact. We were honored to recognize our Girl Scouts’ accomplishments and the resolute volunteers guiding them.

Gold Award Girl Scouts

For links to videos, PDF’s, and other social media pages related to each project, visit the Gold Award Girl Scouts page of our website.

Alli M.

Alli’s project “Safe Haven” was an effort to create a relaxing setting for individuals visiting the Children’s Justice Center. Alli made improvements to an area in the facility where visitors could read, draw, or sit before interviews. Alli painted furniture, and organized donated books and coloring books. After completing the improvements, she informed the community through a number of ways including doing interviews with KPCW radio and the TownLift Paper. She also held a grand opening event, and took people on tours. Alli said the project was the perfect outlet for her project because she’s always felt a connection with community service and helping others.

Eliza R.

Eliza started “Together We Grow” after learning about Live Empowered, an organization that supports disabled adults with work and social experiences suited to their abilities. Live Empowered previously had an underutilized backyard with unlevel dirt, rocks, and weeds. Due to the state of the yard, BBQs were held in the parking lot, which was neither spacious nor convenient. Eliza set a goal to build a safe backyard and increase community awareness. Now, clients at Live Empowered have an outdoor space better suited to them and a youth group committed to coming every year.

Lacey N.

Lacey founded “EntreprenHER,” a club centered around young women wanting to get into entrepreneurship. The club is designed to cultivate a safe space for like-minded young women to interact and encourage each other. Through EntreprenHER, women entrepreneurs are invited to speak about starting a business, formulating ideas, and being resilient. Lacey also helped the club create a website that lists information about events and activities. This was important to Lacey because she felt that women needed a support system.

Lanie P.

Lanie got the idea for her project “Wildlife Water Reservoir” after noticing erosion and lack of water creating problems for wildlife in her community. The erosion decreases the native plants, so wildlife must cross streets to find water and often ends up getting hit.

Lanie worked with Summit Land Conservancy and several volunteers on the project. With materials donated by Park City Municipal Corporation, they worked together to build several rock structures that will prevent the soil from eroding away and allow pools of water to last longer into the dry season. Through her project, Lanie was able to reduce erosion and retain water longer, as well as inform the community so other people can build the same structures in the future.

Relena P.

In the fall of 2020, a member of Relena’s color guard team got a concussion that wasn’t immediately recognized. Her teammate ended up missing several weeks of school and could not participate in color guard for more than a year.

Relena recognized the gap in knowledge among her team and wondered if other teams had the same issue. So, she started her project “Concussions in Color Guard” to educate others about concussions and their symptoms. Relena surveyed color guard organizations, leaders and participants, and reached out to nearly every color guard in Utah. Because of her, many teams submitted pledges to improve concussion safety. Her website “How to Color Guard” features resources about concussions and concussion safety for color guard teams and the public to reference.

Savannah T.

Savannah sewed and donated 500 medical play dolls to Primary Children’s hospital as part of her project “Surgery Sammys.” She was inspired to do the project because of the fear experienced by her young cousin prior to a minor surgery. Doctors and nurses can demonstrate the procedure on the dolls, and the child can dress up and draw on the doll’s face.

All of Savannah’s supplies were donated from Westgate Park City, including sheets to make the body, thread, and support. The polyfill and fun fabric for the gowns were donated by other Girl Scout Troops and local organizations. Savannah created the website “How to Sew Medical Play Dolls” with directions so others can make their own dolls and even the names and contacts at hospitals in the western United States. She also took her project to the Home Economics teacher at Treasure Mountain Junior High in Park City, who added the Medical Play Dolls to the curriculum. The dolls will be made and donated twice a year as each semester ends.

Tanya Y.

When Tanya’s family moved into their new home, they discovered elevated radon levels, sparking her work on “Project Radon.” She started with a survey study on radon awareness of Salt Lake County residents in her sophomore-year AP Environmental Science class. From there, Tanya developed interventions to increase radon awareness with expert help: hosted 15 community events, taught 500 elementary students, and created a website to report radon risks by zip code. She also learned to scale up, creating a lesson plan for 300 STEM teachers and bridging the state of Utah with local firms to enhance free radon testing and consultation.

Community recognition amplified Tanya’s efforts. The Murray City Council streamed her campaign online, then it was publicized in Murray Journal, and Tanya was an invited speaker at the 2022 International Radon Symposium in Seattle.

Silver Award Girl Scouts

Through their Girl Scout Silver Award project, girls focus on an issue they care about and take action to make a difference. They learn courage and confidence by pushing beyond their perceived limits and discovering their strengths in a supportive girl-only environment. It is the highest honor a Girl Scout Cadette can achieve.

French/English Little Free Library

Kaitlyn H. & Katelyn T.

Hats for the Homeless

Allison B. & Dallas C.

Refurbishing the Ranch

Camryn N.

STEM Fair Canvas Course

Afton B.

Special Doll-ivery

Addison S.

Saving Our Land Through Permaculture

Ella W. (Project video, Project survey)

Bountiful Community

Church Beautification

Angela V., Lauren N., Madison D., Myrrie G., Olivia P., Olivia V., and Tiffany B.

Book Drive

Ava L., Avery A., Maile L., Saphirah S., Shantel C., and Sienna L.

Happy Healthy Woods Cross

Abbie S., Addie C., and Ella W.

Welcome Refugees

Maya M.

GSUSA Gold Award Scholarship

Kayla M.

Stocking Roy City Blessing Box

Abbi G.

Project Birthday

Athena W.

L Triple A’s Snuggly Buggly

Fleece Blanket Factory

Aubrey T.

Blessing Box Support

Lily H.

Peer Counselor

Taliyah H.

Sewing Hugs for Ukraine

Anna J.

Healthy HOSA

Bailey S.

Childhood Cancer Awareness

Brooklynn F. and Kestle E.

New York Camp

Beatrix F., Mackenley T., Sierra H., Madison N., Olive C., and Sabrina W.

Fur-ever Friends Cat Towers

Abigail B. and Macee W.

The GSUSA Gold Award Scholarship is awarded each year to Girl Scouts for projects completed between April 2021 and March 2022.

Kayla was 2021-2022 recipient for sewing 100 surgery friend dolls with hospital gowns and creating instructions for volunteers to continue the program.