GSWPA Girl Scout chosen for Shenandoah National Park trails program

Katherine Stancil, at left, cleaning up trails
with her sister Girl Scouts.
Photo: Student Conservation Association

Imagine spending two weeks marveling at cascading waterfalls, awe-inspiring vistas and fascinating wildlife while working side-by-side with park rangers at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
Katherine Stancil, a Senior Girl Scout from Gibsonia, is doing just that as one of just 10 Girls Scouts selected nationwide, and the only one from western Pennsylvania, to work for two weeks this summer cleaning trails at Shenandoah National Park.
She arrived at the park on July 11 to meet her sister Girl Scouts and get started on the trail work.
The trip is part of a $1 million grant from the Richard King Mellon Foundation to connect more Girl Scouts to the outdoors. Girl Scouts is collaborating with the Student Conservation Association to organize these opportunities.
Read more about Katherine being chosen for this opportunity and get an update on what the crew has been doing so far. 

Hard-earned: No one wins a Gold Award

Girls celebrated earning the Gold Award in Cranberry in May.

The mistake is understandable. The Girl Scout Gold Award is an award after all, and awards are often won. That makes sense. Doesn’t it?

Not when it comes to the Gold Award. Girls earn this distinction—the highest achievement in Girl Scouting—through hours of research, planning, community organizing and relationship building. The recommended minimum number of hours for girls to spend on their take-action projects is 80. That means that the 97 Girl Scouts who earned the Gold Award this year logged a minimum of 7,760 hours making the world a better place.

The word “win” also implies that someone else—maybe several people—lost.

No one loses when Girl Scouts answer the call to “go Gold.” Girls gain valuable leadership skills and the experience can set them on a path of community service for life. Also, some universities and colleges offer scholarships for award recipients, and girls who enlist in the U.S. armed forces may receive advanced rank in recognition of their Gold Award achievement.

Communities win, too, because through the Gold Award process, girls seek out the work that needs doing—whether that’s creating a garden for a local food bank, developing programs to help more girls explore STEM careers, or building a wheelchair-accessible playground. 

So when you meet a Gold Award recipient, congratulate her on her hard work. She’s earned it.