The real value of Gold is learning what you can achieve

Committing to earn my Girl Scouts Gold Award was one of the best decisions I have made.

For those not familiar with Girl Scouts, a Gold Award is the highest honor a Girl Scout can achieve. It can make a difference on college entrance applications or earn a higher starting rank for those who join the military.

In the United States, only 6 percent of Girl Scouts achieve a Gold Award. It takes a lot of work, which is why it’s a big deal.

I have been a Girl Scout for 10 years. When I was in second grade, I told my mom I wanted to join Girl Scouts because, “I wanted to sell cookies.” How was I to know that my interest in selling cookies would be my first steps on an amazing 10-year journey?

Girl Scouting has taught me leadership, time management, communication and team-building skills. It has reinforced within me the importance of responsibility and commitment. And it has allowed me to go on fantastic adventures with the other girls in my troop – Lake Tahoe, Humboldt County, Seattle and Vancouver, B.C. I have even gone twice to Washington, D.C. as part of the Future Cities engineering competition.

I’m not sure when I made the decision to try to earn a Gold Award. I wanted to find the right project, but more importantly I needed to be confident that I could balance the time I was expected to invest in it with all my school and sports responsibilities. I discussed it with my parents, my troop leader and the other girls in my troop. In the end, three of us from my troop – Madi Whisenand, Kiana Engel and me – all decided to work toward our Gold Awards.

For my project, I chose to renovate the organic garden at Foothill Horizons Outdoor Education Camp in Sonora. The garden had mostly been washed out during the heavy rains in 2016-17.

My project wasn’t just cleaning up a washed-away garden space, but building new planters and protective coverings, picking out and planting edible and native plants, repairing and painting the compost station and pond pump area, creating signs and labels for the garden, and developing presentation materials for Foothill Horizons staff to educate campers.

Like Girl Scouts, Foothill Horizons Camp has a special place in my heart. I attended summer camp there when I was 11 years old. I had so much fun I still go back for 2-3 weeks every summer. Bringing the outdoor garden back to life seemed like a great way to give back.

But it was a complex project. Before I could even start working on it my project, I had to submit my proposal for approval from the Girl Scouts office in Sacramento. The proposal had to show how the project would make a lasting and sustainable impact on the community.

I committed at least 80 hours to organizing a team to help me. Then, I had to find a way to pay for it. I used money from two years of cookie sales and asked family, friends and local businesses for donations of money or gardening materials.

I started my project in June 2017 and finished in February 2018. The total cost was $1,154.86 (I know exactly how much because I was required to keep a detailed log of time and budget). I am grateful to everyone who helped me. I am extremely thankful for my team who volunteered over 200 hours to help me reach this goal.

More than 8,000 campers a year – from the Bay Area and throughout Stanislaus County – will be able to learn from and enjoy this “Teaching Garden.”

If it wasn’t for the Gold Award and the Girl Scouts, I would not have had the chance to do something on this scale.

Though the back of my Girl Scout vests are covered with more than 130 “fun” patches from the museums, classes and incredible places my troop has gone to together, I am most proud of – and worked the hardest to get – the items on the front of my vests. Those special badges and pins signify being a Girl Scout is not about just having fun. It means I have committed time and effort to becoming a strong and caring individual. I also learned that I can make a difference.