7 Delco Girl Scouts earn prestigious Gold Award
GILBERTSVILLE, PA » Seven local girls shined a proud, positive light on Delaware County recently when they received the prestigious Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award that a Girl Scout can earn.
Margaret Dempsey, Jamie Halliman, Titiksha Pawar, Mackenzie Rosin, Kaylei Schneider, Emily Simkovich and Kathryn Wright were awarded the highest Girl Scout honor during a hybrid ceremony at Camp Laughing Waters in Montgomery County, for their outstanding achievement and dedication to making their community a better place.
Kim Fraites-Dow, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Eastern Pennsylvania and Debbie Hassan, Board Chair at GSEP, were at the ceremony to share remarks and honor eighty girls in the GSEP district with this prestigious award.
The Girl Scout Gold Award recognizes Girl Scout Seniors and Ambassadors, in grades 9-12, who demonstrate extraordinary leadership through sustainable and measurable “Take Action” projects. The Gold Award is the culmination of a girl’s demonstration of leadership ability, time management, creativity, initiative, and a significant mastery of skills. Gold Award Girl Scouts individually identify a community problem, develop a plan to solve it, recruit a team to assist them, and create sustainable solutions that last for years beyond their project.
“We are proud to recognize 80 inspiring Girl Scouts who have earned the prestigious Gold Award,” stated Fraites-Dow. “While this was
a year of extreme change and uncertainty, these girls persevered through it all and saw their ambitious projects to completion. Through their capstone Take Action projects, they have demonstrated the five leadership outcomes we hope every Girl Scout will achieve: developing a strong sense of self, displaying positives values, seeking challenges and learning from setbacks, forming and maintaining healthy relationships, and becoming community problem solvers. These Girl Scouts join an elite group of dreamers and doers exemplifying the Girl Scout promise of making the world a better place.”
Girl Scout Margaret Dempsey of Chadds Ford, a senior at Archmere Academy in Claymont, Del., worked with a team to make over
200 masks at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. These masks were distributed to Hope Partnership for Education, a middle school located in North Philadelphia where masks were scarce. Maggie’s goal was to sew simple, high quality masks and distribute them to people who did not have access to masks. Maggie is an active member of Troop 492.
Jamie Halliman, of Broomall, focused her project on spreading awareness about Automated External Defibrillators by creating informational videos, pamphlets, and more. AEDs are lifesaving machines, but unfortunately, they go unused because not many people know how to use them or their importance. Jamie feels that having this knowledge is necessary and truly lifesaving
so she wanted to help educate people about them. Jamie is part of the Marple Newtown High School Class of 2020 and is a Girl Scout in Troop 5501.
Titiksha Pawar, a Girl Scout in Troop 53481, spent time in both India and America leading sewing classes where participants made handmade bags for Safe Harbor of Chester County. She also donated food and positive pictures drawn by elementary school students, whom she educated about homelessness. Titiksha’s family loves to travel, but seeing people experiencing homelessness everywhere she has visited made her realize that she wanted to help the people facing difficulties in her own community. Titiksha, a resident of Concord, is a member of Garnet Valley High
School’s Class of 2021.
Mackenzie Rosin, of Media, created a free library stocked with PJ Library books for children of all ages at the Kaiserman JCC in Wynnewood. As an avid childhood reader herself, her goal was to provide an inviting space to spark kids’ curiosity and encourage them to take the crucial first steps in a lifetime of learning. Mackenzie, a member of Troop 511, is part of the Penncrest High School Class of 2020.
Emily Simkovich, of Drexel Hill, worked with the Adoptee Rights Campaign to collect information for a program for the ARC Lawyer Network website. This website lists immigration and deportation defense lawyers that can help people adopted from foreign countries by American citizens and yet do not have U.S. citizenship themselves avoid deportation back to the countries they were adopted from. Emily is homeschooled and is a member of GSEP Troop 57087.
Kaylei Schneider, of Chadds Ford, created a water sensory play station, equipped with interactive features and water toys, for a local summer camp. She also included a binder of educational activities focused on water conservation and protecting the water environment that can be used to educate campers. Kaylei, a member of Girl Scout Troop 492, will graduate this year from Unionville High School.
Kathryn Wright, of Glen Mills, created a website and YouTube channel, Stay-atHome Science, where she posted educational science videos with a target audience of third to fifth graders. Each video included a fun experiment using common household items that helped to teach ‘students’ interesting scientific concepts. Her purpose in creating Stayat-Home Science was to help kids stay engaged with STEM during COVID-19 while similarly advancing STEM for children in her community. Kathryn, a member of GSEP Troop 5065, will graduate this year from Garnet Valley High School.
The Girl Scouts’ Take Action projects provide benefits with sustainable impact to their communities which truly emphasizes the remarkable power of Girl Scouts. This year’s Gold Award projects ranged in topic from providing younger girls with workshops and opportunities to share their experiences about body image and self-esteem, to tracking the feeding patterns and rolling out prevention techniques to mitigate the costly damages Spotted Lanternflies are causing to the environment and the local economy. Together, this year’s Gold Award Girl Scouts completed 7,400 leadership hours of community service. Based on the latest service worth estimate of one volunteer hour ($28.54), this represents a value of more than $200,000 in community problem solving investment for the nine counties that GSEP serves. For more information on the Girl Scout Gold Award, visit: https:// www.gsep.org/en/about-girlscouts/our-program/highestawards/gold-award.html.