Hundreds of Girl Scouts Honored in Pasadena for Taking Action in Their Communities

On Sunday, June 5 in Pasadena, 239 Girl Scouts throughout Greater Los Angeles were honored by the regional Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles (GSGLA) council.  The Gold Award is the highest achievement a Girl Scout can earn, available to girls in high school, who create sustainable change on a community or world issue. As Gold Award Girl Scouts take action to transform their world, they gain tangible skills and prove they are the leaders our community and world need. As for the past few years, the GSGLA council has had the largest Gold Award class of the 111 Girl Scout councils in the United States Earning the Gold Award requires the planning and implementation of a challenging, large-scale project that is innovative, engages others, and has a lasting impact on its targeted community. Nationally, only six percent of all eligible Girl Scouts achieve the Gold Award. Girls who earn it qualify for college scholarships, additional national service awards, can enter the military one rank higher, and more.

Theresa Edy Kiene, Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles CEO, addressed the Girl Scouts at the ceremony by sharing, “We are in good hands. Our world needs empathetic, resilient, and purpose-driven influencers just like you. It makes me very proud to be here with you to honor what you’ve worked so hard to accomplish. More importantly, I hope it makes each of you proud. Achieving a Girl Scout Gold Award is a lifelong recognition of your work, commitment and passion.”

Malia Mailes, host for the afternoon and Girl Scout Gold Award Alum, shared her Gold Award Story from 2009, where she bravely overcame significant obstacles during her own Gold Project and ultimately impacted California legislation.

Throughout Greater Los Angeles, Gold Award projects tackle issues like illiteracy, homelessness, discrimination, environmental issues, mental health, food insecurity and so much more. This year, one GSGLA Girl Scout named Isabella spearheaded a successful program that taught first responders in Long Beach how to interact with the developmentally disabled during critical incidents. Izzy was also just selected as one of the recipients of the 2022 Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) Gold Award Scholarship. The GSUSA Gold Award Scholarship recognizes one outstanding Gold Award Girl Scout per council who has demonstrated extraordinary leadership to drive lasting change in their community and beyond. Another Girl created an after-school curriculum of STEAM and Coding courses, another published a book to raise awareness about OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) and was invited to read it at the National OCD Foundation’s annual event. These are just a few examples of the hundreds of projects.

Click here for a full list of GSGLA’s 2022 Gold Award projects.

The ceremony gave attendees the opportunity to celebrate and meet with these young women face-to-face, learning more about the projects they worked so hard on to improve the lives of people around them, better their community and change the world.

To learn more about the Girl Scout Gold Award please visit www.girlscoutsla.org/goldaward.