Ten Girl Scouts in southeastern Wisconsin honored with Gold Award

Ten Girl Scouts from Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast (GSWISE) were recently awarded the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouting.

Their Take Action projects included installing literacy trails for children in Haiti, Kenya, and Milwaukee; a conference for girls at Milwaukee School of engineering that exposed them to career opportunities in science, technology, engineering and math fields, building a wheelchair accessible garden bed at the Riveredge Nature Center, and more, according to the GSWISE website.

Projects typically take 65-80 hours to accomplish and are projects, which impacts the community and makes the world a better place.

Colleen DeLisle
Colleen DeLisle’s project promoted early literacy and its relation to success later in life. She installed community literacy trails in Haiti, Kenya, and Milwaukee. The trails use games to engage children and involve parents in their child’s reading development. Signs identify natural objects with words, and children are encouraged to come up with rhyming words.

“I would rather be outside, in the world, making a difference, than just sitting back. Every child deserves a chance; they deserve an education and it’s really rewarding when they are enjoying it,” said Colleen.

Maggie Conlon
For her Girl Scout Gold Award project, Maggie created a display for the Brookfield Public Library, creating a more attractive bookcase to appeal to children. She wanted to encourage an early love of reading so she recruited high-school volunteers from the Brookfield Central Key Club for a read-aloud program to help toddlers develop an early love of reading. Her project will be sustained by the Key Club who will maintain the display and continue to read to children monthly.

Eleanor Brown
Eleanor’s project addressed the danger of hearing loss and targeted her message to reach teens. She identified that materials warning of the dangers of listening to loud headphones were typically not addressed to a younger audience. Brown created a website and a Facebook page, and designed packets for teachers including a Kahoot, which is a tool that allows students to take interactive quizzes on their phones.

The West Allis Health Department will distribute Eleanor’s information at future employee hearing screenings.

Kathryn Preibisch
Kathryn educated students on the harm done when invasive species take over an environment. She engaged 200 third grade students in the Whitnall School District and youth groups visiting the Wehr Nature Center. Her program included classroom instruction and a field trip to the forest for an invasive species pull, giving students hands-on opportunities. The school district will continue the program and incorporate it as part of their annual Earth Day initiative.

Taylor Berger
Taylor titled her Gold Award project “Engineering the Future of Women.” She held a conference at the Milwaukee School of Engineering (MSOE) for girls in grades 8-12, sharing information about careers in mechanical, electrical, industrial, and software engineering. Each session explained the benefits of the different types of engineering and included activities appropriate for the skill levels of the participants.

After completing her project, Berger learned that 83 percent of the attendees were more interested in pursuing an engineering career.

Also awarded were Anna Frey,17, of Jackson, for her wheelchair-accessible garden beds and gardening program. Morgan Schmit,17, of Pleasant Prairie for her rain-forest attack educational program.

Emma Mitchell,18, of Whitefish Bay for her after-school revamp program and Allison Spring,17, of Racine for her science-in-a box program.