Girl Scout Erin McBriarty recently completed a project in order to receive the Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn.
The Girl Scout Gold Award is awarded to Girl Scout Juniors or Seniors who completed a project that will make a lasting difference in the world.
“In order to receive this award, you have to earn your Bronze and Silver Awards. The Bronze Award is an award given to your whole troop. The Silver Award is given after doing little projects with different groups, and the Gold Award is all by yourself,” said junior Erin McBriarty.
Erin’s award ceremony will take place on May 20th in a college auditorium.
“I am excited to receive this award because I worked hard on my project. I can also receive scholarships for having the Gold Award. Only 2,000 girls in the nation get this award each year, so it is a pretty cool accomplishment to get to receive it,” McBriarty said.
The first step to the project was having to create a proposal. Her project’s plan was initially to create an art library for the children at the Ronald McDonald House in Eastern Wisconsin. But after receiving hundreds of donated arts and crafts books, supplies and materials, she decided to add onto her plan and create ‘art boxes’ and create crafts for the families to do while staying at the house.
“The proposal consisted of questions asking what I plan to do and who it is going to impact. I then had to get my proposal approved,” McBriarty said.
After getting her proposal approved, Erin had to partake in a final interview to re-explain her project once again.
“During the final interview, they asked me a few more questions about how much money my project will make and where will it be donated to. It takes a long time for this project to be approved, completed, and re-approved by the counsel. It’s definitely a project that you have to be able to commit to,” McBriarty said.
At the end of her final interview, Erin got approved, which meant that she was eligible to receive the Gold Award.
“I liked doing this project because it helped me help the community and allowed me to volunteer. It helped build my leadership skills,” McBriarty said.