Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois (GSSI) is pleased to announce that Lauren Carter from Collinsville has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can receive.
For her Girl Scout Gold Award project, called Nursery Reboot, Lauren worked with her church to improve and remodel the nursery. As part of her project, she removed broken furniture and toys and replaced them with age appropriate ones. Also concerned about children’s safety, she replaced the old carpet with new carpet and a thicker pad to protect the children if they fell while playing. In addition, Lauren scheduled a CPR class which would teach nursery staff and other church members life-saving skills. And finally, she updated the church nursery policy manual and set up a check “in and out” policy for the nursery.
“I learned that you can’t let the bumps in the road get in your way while trying to get something accomplished,” Lauren said. “You will always have bumps along the way in life, but they shouldn’t stop you from getting to your goals. You have to work around them and find a way to solve the problem yourself,” she said.
Lauren is the daughter of Warren and Laurie Carter. She will graduate from Collinsville High School in 2017 and has been a Girl Scout for 12 years.
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 5 percent of eligible girls earn the prestigious Gold Award.
