California Central Coast Girl Scout Troop Scores Double Gold!

Sept. 27, 2009 - PRLog -- CALIFORNIA CENTRAL COAST GIRL SCOUT TROOP SCORES DOUBLE GOLD!

Kelly Bacon and Lilly Wellington from Troop 11106, California Central Coast Council just won the Girl Scout Gold Award. The Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can receive--only 5% of the eligible Girl Scouts earn it each year. In addition to completing over 100 hours of leadership, service, and badge requirements, these girls each wrote business plans and then completed their 65 required hours on their individual Gold Award projects.

Gold Award projects must address a community issue and provide measurable and sustainable impact.  Kelly Bacon’s project focused on bringing the deaf and hearing communities together. Her project, titled “American Sign Language (ASL) for Elementary Students” entailed the development and delivery of course materials designed especially for hearing elementary students. “My goal was to give these elementary students an idea of what sign language is and the basics of how to sign, hoping that some may pursue ASL more as they get older,” said Kelly,  “If more people knew ASL, the deaf would feel more included in the community.”  Kelly started at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo last week and is majoring in Mathematics.

Lilly Wellington wanted to address the issue of sustainable (“green”) building in the Central Coast region, by developing and managing an online forum titled “Enviable by Design.” The website (www.crosswind.com/enviablebydesign.html). is a resource for different services and suppliers that are essential to designers, builders and homeowners for "green" design. With the aid of the website, the local "green" community can easily reach out and communicate with consumers. “Not only will my project aid the local "green" market, but if it causes a few more people to make a change in their current home that makes it more environmentally sustainable or to build a sustainable home, the local environment will benefit greatly,” says Lilly. Lilly is now a freshman majoring in Architecture at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.

It’s remarkable that two Gold Awards came out of a troop of six Senior Girl Scouts, since the average is typically just one Gold Award per twenty girls. But Troop 1106 is a remarkable troop—it is the longest running troop in the Santa Cruz area. Two of it’s leaders, Joyce Finch and Glenna Harlamoff have been leading this troop together for over 30 years. These women have not only taught countless girls to be self-sufficient with their famous “white glove” trips (where the girls did everything, including trip planning, pitching tents, budgeting, fueling cars, cooking, managing the troop checkbook, etc.) but these women also taught many other leaders and adult volunteers the “Trips and Travel” program they developed for teenaged troops. “I was so honored to work with them,” said Chris Knudsen, the11106 Gold Award Advisor.