USA Girl Scouts Overseas SHAPE held their highest awards ceremony June 11, 2019, to honor 11 exceptional girls for completing the Girl Scouts’ highest award for their level at SHAPE, Belgium. (Photo provided by Brandy L. Perkins)

SHAPE Girl Scouts receive highest awards

SHAPE, Belgium -- USA Girl Scouts Overseas SHAPE held their highest awards ceremony June 11 to honor 11 exceptional girls for completing the Girl Scouts’ highest award for their level.

The Girl Scouts showed that they are committed to working toward the goals they set for themselves and improving the world around them. They dedicated tremendous time and energy in discovering the community’s needs, connecting with experts and volunteers, and taking action to create true and meaningful changes in our world.

The ceremony was hosted by Katherine McCormick, Cadette-level Girl Scout and 2018 Silver Award recipient, and Moira O’Neil, junior-level Girl Scout and 2018 Bronze Award recipient. The awards ceremony’s guest speaker was Army Col. Yolonda “YR” Summons, a leader who embodied the Girl Scout G.I.R.L. (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader™) in the community.

BRONZE AWARD

The Bronze Award was introduced by Moira O’Neil. The Bronze Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Junior can achieve. The recipients include Kassidy Jordan, Addyson Jurecki, Brenna McGuire, Carter Pleasants and Amelia Teta.

To earn this award, girls in fourth and fifth grade must first complete one of the Girl Scout Leadership Journeys and devote at least 20 hours to their project. Girls work as a troop on a Take Action project—a project that benefits the Girl Scout community or their local neighborhood. Working as a team, the girls search in their communities for information about local resources.

Girls dig deeper to discover problems and polish their ideas to find creative solutions. This year, the Bronze award team hosted a food drive for Le Kangourou Women Shelter in Baudour, Belgium. The scouts collected over 200 non-perishable items and prepared a home-cooked Italian Sunday dinner for the shelter residents and children.

SILVER AWARD

The Silver Award was introduced by Katherine McCormick. The Silver Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette can achieve. The recipients include Aaliyah Hill, Fruzsina Kiss and Emily Blanke. Blanke is also a 2016 Girls Bronze Award Recipient.

Just like a miner who must sharpen the axe and check the flashlight before heading to work, Cadettes must complete a leadership journey before working on the Silver Award. Completing this journey helps girls stock their toolkit with communication skills and added confidence.

With these honed skills, Cadettes can work individually or in a small group to complete the Silver Award. A typical Silver Award involves at least 50 hours of service per girl. This year all girls logged over 60 hours completing their projects .To earn the award, girls must discover a need in the community and develop a sustainable solution. Just as silver is a metal that endures the test of time, every single Silver Award project will keep benefiting our world for many years. This year our council has three silver award projects.

The first project silver award was a community clean-up event for the current scout hut. Over five years ago, the building was identified to be demolished. As a result, there is limited logistical support for maintaining the building.

This Girl Scout Silver Award team collaborated with the various organizations who utilized the building and established a routine cleaning schedule of the common areas to maintain the meeting space.

The second project was a solo project by Brazil Perkins who is also a 2016 Girls Bronze Award Recipient. Perkins created a toy donation closet at Chièvres Army Lodge for transitioning military children in the U.S. Army Garrison Benelux community. She collected and donated over 200 new and gently used toys and books.

The last and final silver award project this year was completed by Alyssa Schulze who is also a 2018 Girls Bronze Award Recipient. Schulze partnered with Alex’s Farm of Strays and made over 100 dog toys to send to Cyprus to displaced dogs who are being re-homed in Belgium and Germany.

GOLD AWARD

The Gold Award is the highest award in all of Girl Scouting symbolized by the most precious metal. As with the other high-level awards, seniors and ambassadors must lay the foundation work. Gold Award recipients complete two leadership journeys before beginning their Gold Award Take Action project. Then they must work individually to discover resources and problems in her community. They do this by connecting with experts and meeting with community members.

Once they identify a specific community need, the scout hones in on a sustainable solution. Throughout the process, the scout brings people to join her team. They reach out to other girl scouts, friends, family members and community organizations to get involved.

This is like the process of a gold miner pulling hunks of metal from the ground and then refining it and polishing it until it shines bright. Gold Award recipients devote at least 80 hours of work to refining their Take Action projects. These projects create lasting change in the community. Gold Award recipients embody the Girl Scout mission by developing courage, confidence and character.

The 2019 Girl Scout Gold Award recipient is Jaden McDaniel.

McDaniel attended the Speaking of Women’s Health Conference hosted by SHARP in San Diego, California, which focused on women's health. To her surprise, there were no girls her age in attendance. McDaniel began researching and discovered the International Association for Adolescent Health, an organization made up of students, scholars and professionals from many different disciplines all engaged in finding ways to support adolescents and their health concerns. They organize programs and events targeting and supporting adolescent health concerns all over the world. She realized this was something she wanted to do for girls in the Benelux community.

She collaborated with healthcare professionals within the community and organized a health and wellness conference. On May 4, 21 girls from the 29 nations represented on SHAPE, gathered at the Child and Youth Services Teen Center to attend the “Be True Be You” Health Conference. The girls were able to connect, share and feel welcomed to talk about nutrition, fitness, overcoming anxiety, dealing with depression, body image and receive CPR instruction. They left with healthy-coping mechanisms and tools to use when feeling overwhelmed. Thirteen girls became CPR-certified by the Red Cross.

Girl Scouts are the preeminent leadership development organization for girls, with programs from coast to coast and across the globe, Girl Scouts offer every girl a chance to practice a lifetime of leadership, adventure and success. For more information about Girls Scouts on SHAPE, please visit their Facebook page.

Submission by Brandy L. Perkins