On Sunday, I attended the Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles inaugural Gold Awards ceremony. It's an inaugural event for greater LA because it signifies the first event held after 6 regional councils across southern California were merged. Many people are not familiar with the Gold Awards. Like becoming an Eagle Scout, the Gold Awards is the highest individual achievement for a Girl Scout, which is usually two years in the making, comprised of 65 hours of community service. Combined, the 255 girls contributed over 17,000 hours of community service. Here are some examples:
Tied with Love - attempted to bring awareness to the plight of the invisible children of Uganada to the community.
Balancing the Water - discovered specific pollutants in the Dunsmore Canyon Stream, a tributary to the LA River and publicized her findings to increase awareness and effect change in the community.
Help Save a Life - increase awareness and registration for under-represented Asians on the national marrow registry.
Clean Burning Stoves - a project to build and install new stoves and chimneys into homes in Peru. She filmed her documentary as well.
I'm quite proud of the achievement of these Angelinas: 19% of those eligible to earn a Gold Award in Los Angeles received one yesterday, which far exceeds the national average of 4.5%.
It was a terrific celebration of achievement to demonstrate character, courage, and community. Many if not all have developed skills in decision making, leadership, setting priorities, etc. that took me decades to learn. But I suppose I'm a late bloomer. So much more will they achieve in life, which fills me with hope.
Now, about those cookies. Thin mint, anyone?
Punchlines
Fifty years from now and you look back on your life, don't you want to admit that you...
...partied backstage with Bananarama? No...not really.
Thin mint was always my favorite. I could eat a whole box of those in one sitting.
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