Girl
Scouts of Southern Illinois (GSSI) is pleased to announce that Hannah Pavlisin from
Lebanon has been nominated for Girl Scouts of the USA’s 2014 National Young
Woman of Distinction (NYWOD) honor.
Each Girl Scout council can
submit up to three applicants for the NYWOD honor. This prestigious honor is conferred by Girl
Scouts of the USA on Girl Scout Gold Award recipients whose final projects
demonstrated extraordinary leadership, had a measurable and sustainable impact
and addressed a local challenge that related to a national and/or global
issue. Only ten girls throughout the
country receive this special honor each year.
For her Girl Scout Gold Award project, Hannah wanted
to help reduce the fear and isolation that many patients at St. Louis Children’s
Hospital patients face by providing a fun event to take them away from their
troubles for the night. Her event, named Dare to Dream, offered hands-on activities, fun demonstrations and
special guests.
“I’ve always loved interacting with kids and in college
I will be studying Nursing,” said Hannah. “It seemed like a perfect fit for me
and the hard part was narrowing down all of my ideas!”
First, Hannah transformed a playroom and cafeteria at
Children’s Hospital into outer space and created a giant cardboard “above the
clouds” castle for children to enjoy.
Next, she set up stations for activities that included making play jet-packs
to go along with the space theme, painting art canvasses, decorating cupcakes
and creating photo frames. She also arranged
for local firemen, police officers, a pilot, a pastry chef, professional artists
and Olympians to talk with children about their jobs, give demonstrations and
take photos (to place in the kids’ new photo frames). At the end of the night, all of the children
got teddy bears to take back to their rooms.
Along with fulfilling
her desire to cheer up hospitalized children, Hannah was also able to hone her
leadership skills by earning her Girl Scout Gold Award. “I learned so much about myself and working
with others,” she said. “While
leadership has always came naturally to me, recruiting and directing those
older than me was a new challenge.”
If selected as a National Young Woman of Distinction,
Hannah will receive a $5,000 academic scholarship made possible by the Kappa
Delta Foundation and will be nationally recognized at the 2014 National Council
Session/53rd National Convention of Girl Scouts of the USA.
Hannah is the daughter of James and Pennie Pavlisin. She is a GSSI Trifecta Award winner for
earning her Girl Scout Bronze Award, Girl Scout Silver Award and Girl Scout
Gold Award. She is currently a senior at O’Fallon Township
High School and plans to attend Bradley University to study Nursing in the fall.
