Your Promise. Her Future.

Community Walking Path Trail Guide

Alivia addressed the lack of safe and accessible walking trails in her community while encouraging fitness. She collaborated with local companies and the park district to create a trail system featuring maps, markers, and exercise stations. Three trails—a half-mile, three-quarter-mile, and two-mile loop—now include exercise equipment and instructional signage. Alivia also added QR codes for feedback and shared trail updates on the park’s website. The local parks department will maintain the trails, equipment, and signs, ensuring her project’s lasting impact.

Kick Butt Chemistry

Arabella combined her passion for chemistry with a desire to inspire young students. She created a three-day summer camp at Aley Church in Beavercreek, offering hands-on experiments such as elephant toothpaste, density layers, paper chromatography, and even ice cream making. With help from six volunteers, the camp engaged 30–35 third to fifth graders daily. Arabella's program was so successful that Aley Church plans to continue it as part of their summer offerings, spreading her love of chemistry to future generations.

Tikkun Farm Hydroponics Greenhouse

Jane partnered with Tikkun Farm, a non-profit urban farm, to create an agricultural skills program for students pursuing careers in farming. She developed a hydroponics greenhouse as the centerpiece of the program, providing hands-on experience with innovative farming techniques. Students attended sessions on farming methods, life skills, and career readiness. Jane also equipped Tikkun Farm with the tools and training needed to maintain the hydroponics system and continue offering the educational program, giving students valuable skills for their futures.

Art for Anxiety

Kylee used her project as a tool to promote mental health awareness among youth. She developed eight lesson plans focusing on topics like anxiety, depression, stress management, self-image, and healthy choices. Each lesson incorporated an art activity, such as creating clay sculptures, happy collages, or personalized name paintings. By combining mental health education with creative expression, Kylee provided a safe space for young people to learn about mental health warning signs and effective coping strategies.

Keeping the Promise
As we step into 2025, I want to celebrate the incredible opportunities your support creates for every Girl Scout in our council.

In March, we will celebrate the 2025 class of Gold Award Girl Scouts, recognizing 44 amazing leaders. This prestigious accomplishment showcases the leadership, creativity, innovation, and resilience of young women who are making a lasting impact in their communities. In this edition, you’ll learn about inspiring Gold Award projects in each of the Girl Scout pillars: Outdoors, STEM, Life Skills, and Entrepreneurship.

Additionally, you’ll hear from an alum who shares how her Gold Award experience is shaping her college and professional career. The Gold Award equips young leaders with skills that extend far beyond Girl Scouts.

Your support makes the Gold Award—and every aspect of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience—possible. Whether it’s her first troop meeting or earning her Gold Award, you are helping every girl unlock opportunities to grow, lead, and thrive.

Thank you for your unwavering commitment to empowering girls. Together, we are building a brighter future, one Girl Scout at a time.

The Gold Award represents the pinnacle of Girl Scout achievement. This prestigious award challenges Girl Scout Seniors and Ambassadors to change the world by solving a community problem in an innovative and sustainable way.

In 2024, 35 Girl Scouts from Western Ohio earned Gold Award, joining 2,961 Girl Scouts nationally. The top four community issues they tackled included education, children’s issues, environment & sustainability, and life skills. Girl Scouts spent an average of 98 hours(!) on their Gold Award project.

Girl Scouts don’t do it alone, but they do lead the charge. They raise money and in-kind donations, create a team of volunteers to support their project, collaborate with a community partner, direct the activities, and gain valuable skills along the way like project management, research, communication, collaboration, and time management.

The investment in their communities is huge, but the investment these Girl Scouts make in themselves is priceless.

As a result of her hands-on projects, mostly around engineering, she allowed girls to embrace engineering's trial-and-error nature. To provide access for continued learning, Olivia developed a website and YouTube channel.

Through Olivia's Gold Award project, she learned how to organize activities, manage volunteers, delegate tasks, and communicate effectively as a leader. She embraced her vulnerability and in return, created a safe space for girls to feel comfortable and grow in confidence.

Olivia is a sophomore at the University of Dayton, studying Industrial Engineering Technology. She credits her Gold Award for opening doors that led to engineering internships, including the job she is currently holding at Walt Disney World, where she optimizes park operations.