Nearly 80 Girl Scouts, along with their friends and family, gathered at Embassy Suites in Loveland on April 28, 2019 to honor the more than 1,200 Girl Scouts from across Colorado who took the lead in their communities and earned one of Girl Scouts’ Highest Awards, the Bronze, Silver, or Gold Award.

The Gold Award, which is the highest honor in Girl Scouts, is presented to girls in grades 9-12 who demonstrate extraordinary leadership through a project that makes a difference in their community. The Silver Award is the highest award a girl in 6th – 8th grade can earn. The Bronze Award is the highest award a girl in 4th or 5th grade can earn. For the 2018-19 Girl Scout awards program year, 145 Girl Scouts in Northern and Northeastern Colorado earned the Bronze Award. 100 girls across Northern and Northeastern Colorado earned the prestigious Silver Award. 42 girls across Colorado earned the prestigious Gold Award.

Girl Scouts of Colorado President and CEO Stephanie Foote applauded the girls for having the courage and confidence to try new things and make their world a better place.

“Highest Award recipients are perfect examples of girls who lead the Girl Scout way. Taking the lead like a Girl Scout means being a go-getter who is bold, honest, and determined to succeed; an innovator who thinks outside the box; a risk-taker who is willing to try new things; and a leader who leads with empathy,” she said.

2018 Gold Award Girl Scout and winner of the Stephanie A. Foote Leadership Prize for Gold Award Excellence Riley Morgenthaler served as the celebration’s emcee. She talked briefly about how earning the Girl Scout Gold Award has impacted her life.

“Every time I think that the Gold Award has given me everything it possibly can, I get a new, amazing opportunity; use the tremendous number of skills it taught me; or receive unexpected feedback from the community I targeted with my project. I am so amazed to see how my project has continued to grow wings and impact even more people, ” she said.

The focus of a Gold Award project is identifying and researching a community issue she is passionate about, developing a plan to address it in cooperation with her team and community members, establishing a global connection with others, and providing sustainability for the project. Of the skills learned through Girl Scouts’ Highest Awards, leadership, organization, and critical thinking are the fundamentals of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience. Some universities and colleges offer scholarships unique to Gold Award recipients, and girls who enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces may receive advanced rank in recognition of their achievements.