 GSSJC
has another Young Woman of Distinction!
by Cindy Gernand, GSSJC Gold Award Coordinator and Julie Deeter,
Program Manager
GSSJC is very pleased to announce Senior Girl Scout Emily C. was
selected as one of the 2005 Girl Scout Gold Award Young Women of
Distinction! This is an honor that only 25-50 girls will be chosen
for nationwide this year.
The Girl Scout Gold Award Young Woman of Distinction honor is a
recognition of the extraordinary achievement in the design and implementation
of a Girl Scout Gold Award project. Honorees and their projects
illustrate the Girl Scout program goals in action and demonstrate
how girls can leave a mark on the world around them by voicing what
is important to them, by taking action, and making a difference.
Emily’s Gold Award project was chosen on the basis of outstanding
achievement in design and implementation of a Gold Award project.
Her project, “Recycle for Life,” showcased the importance
of recycling the human body so that others might live. Her desire
was to educate communities about the need to donate blood and the
proper protocol for doing so. She set up blood drives and designed
an awareness component where partner agencies Life Gift, Locks of
Love, the National Bone Marrow Center, the Gulf Coast Regional Blood
Center, and Vial of Life shared information and educated the public
about their missions. Many participants not only gave blood, they
also signed organ donation cards, donated hair, and registered with
the National Bone Marrow Center. An additional component was the
collection of eyeglasses at area eye clinics for the Lions Eye Bank.
The time requirement for her Gold Award project was 50 hours, and
Emily logged an amazing 152 hours not counting drive time or phone
calls. The direct impact on the community was amazing. She educated
close to 1,000 people. In all, 613 pints of blood were collected,
746 donor cards were completed, 1,106 vials of life were distributed,
four bone marrow donations were made, 88 inches of hair were collected,
and 63 pairs of eyeglasses were collected. Statistics from the Gulf
Coast Regional Blood Center estimate that 58,895 lives could be
saved through these efforts!
Emily will travel to the Girl Scout National Council Session/50th
Convention in Atlanta this October. She will spend four days
networking with others, participating in leadership workshops in
addition to being honored for her outstanding achievement in Girl
Scouting.
GSSJC was also proud to nominate Gold Award Recipients Shruti B.
and Meryl-Ina K. as 2005 Young Women of Distinction.
Congratulations to Emily, Shruti, and Meryl and to this Council
for continuing to offer outstanding programs that foster leadership
and encourage girls to stay in Girl Scouting.
 Letters
Send your letter to GSSJC,
The Golden Link,
3110 Southwest Freeway
Houston, TX 77098
Letters may be edited for space.
Letter to the editor:
Imagine my surprise when I received a copy of The Golden
Link from none other than Navajo in the mail. It had
a note attached saying “look on page 11.” I opened
it up and saw an account of a river trip I had taken in one
of the many years I attended Camp Agnes Arnold for the Rainbow
Cascade session. Many memories came flooding back to me in
part because my own daughter joined the Girl Scouts this year!
Throughout my life, I’ve been keenly aware of the impact
scouting has had on my life. I was not a member of a troop,
but attended camp for many years and learned so much from
the counselors and other campers. I have learned that I have
the power to set goals and achieve them. I learned to take
risks and either learn from the failures or relish in the
accomplishments. But most of all, I know how much scouting
had influenced me and will influence my daughter. She is so
excited about attending overnight summer camps next year.
I cannot wait to help her pack and take her to a camp here
or someday maybe to Camp Agnes Arnold. I hope that she will
make her own memories, and learn many of the lessons and skills
that I did.
Thank you to Margaret Sheriff, author of the Moment in History,
and to Navajo for running a camp that had such a positive
influence on so many girls.
Sincerely,
Chrissy (Ryder) Holbrook
Marietta, GA |
A message to moms
from Juliette Low
Why should (your) daughter become a Girl Scout?
If you asked (your) daughter, she would probably reply “because
Girl Scouts have real FUN.” But, if I were to analyze
the results of Scouting, I would tell a mother that the most
valuable asset her girl would gain is a sense of Individual
Responsibility. She makes her Promise (1) to do her duty to
God and country (2) to help others at all times (3) to obey
the Girl Scout laws. This promise is taken seriously and the
individual responsibility is brought by Team Work. Every girl
lives up to a standard and sees that her (comrades) in her
patrol live up to it also.
- Juliette Low |
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