Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois (GSSI) is pleased to announce that Meredith Layfield has received the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can receive.
For her Girl Scout Gold Award project, Meredith was inspired by her cousin Gabby, who was hospitalized in the Newborn Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. Gabby was predicted to live a mere eight weeks, but has now grown to be four years old. From her cousin’s experience, Meredith learned that newborn intensive care units are unable to regulate their own body temperature and need hats to keep them warm. However, the units often lack funding to provide hats and do not receive enough donations to fill the need – so Meredith rallied her community to help.
Meredith completed her project, which she named Gabby’s Gift, as a Senior at O’Fallon Township High School. Starting out, she didn’t know how to crochet – but she didn’t let that stop her. She taught herself from a book well enough that she was able to then teach others how to make the tiny hats for hospitalized infants. In all, she was able to donate 55 crochet hats to Children’s Hospital’s NICU. She also spread awareness of the need for more hats through the community and started a Facebook Page to help promote a more widespread campaign.
Along with helping hospitalized infants, Meredith also gained new confidence in her own abilities. “I learned how to lead those I view as adults,” she said. “Before, I was fine leading my peers, but through this project, I learned how to lead people who are older than my peer group.
Meredith is the daughter of David and Betsy Layfield. She is currently a freshman at Columbus State Community College, where she is majoring in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.
The Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn, recognizes a Girl Scout's commitment to excellence as she develops skills and values to meet present and future challenges in her life. To earn the Girl Scout Gold Award, a Girl Scout Senior or Girl Scout Ambassador must design and carry out a project that fulfills a need within a girl’s community, creates change, and is sustainable. The project must be completed with a suggested minimum of 80 hours of work. Only about 6 percent of eligible girls earn the prestigious Gold Award.