Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast Honors 423 Local Girl Scouts at Annual Highest Awards Celebration
Local Girl Scouts Contributed 12,150+ Hours to Implement Sustainable Change in Community
MILWAUKEE – (May 21, 2024) – Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast (GSWISE) is recognizing 423 local Girl Scouts for earning the Girl Scout Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards, the highest honors a Girl Scout can earn, during its annual Highest Awards Celebration on Tuesday, May 21 at Milwaukee Area Technical College’s Downtown Campus. The 423 recipients (a 23%+ increase in recipients compared to 2023) contributed more than 12,150 hours of impactful service toward projects that created measurable and lasting change in southeastern Wisconsin communities and beyond.
Highest Awards are presented to Junior, Cadette, Senior, and Ambassador Girl Scouts (grades 4-12) who display leadership while engaging in projects that improve their communities through direct action. To earn the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards, Girl Scouts must complete required Journeys, explore the community and identify an issue, work with other Girl Scouts and/or local leaders to make a plan that creatively addresses the problem, and take action that leads to long-term impact. At each level, Highest Award projects give Girl Scouts opportunities to develop their time management and communication skills, move outside of their comfort zones, gain experience in goal setting, and discover firsthand how to contribute to their communities in meaningful ways that make a difference.
At this year’s Highest Awards Celebration, GSWISE will honor the achievements of:
- 17 Gold Award Girl Scouts who achieved the highest honor in Girl Scouting by contributing more than 1,360 hours developing and carrying out lasting solutions for issues inside and outside their neighborhoods. To earn the Gold Award, a Girl Scout identifies an issue in their community, drafts a plan to address its root cause(s), and leads a team of volunteers to implement change. This year’s projects included the expansion of local environmental education, the development of accessible STEM resources for elementary and middle school students, the creation of mental health resource guides, and the implementation of art partnerships with local senior living and rehabilitation centers.
- 89 Silver Award Girl Scouts who dedicated more than 4,450 hours of service through their projects. Girl Scout Cadettes can team up with a small group of fellow Girl Scouts or work independently to research an issue and take action to improve their community. They addressed community issues by creating themed sensory activity bags for children with special needs, building wheelchair accessible tables at camp, developing educational programs around flag etiquette and retirement, and planting butterfly gardens.
- 317 Bronze Award Girl Scouts (a 49% increase year-over-year) who gave more than 6,340 hours of service to the community through their projects. Junior Girl Scouts discover a need or issue they care about and work together with fellow Girl Scouts to address it. This year’s Girl Scouts focused on solving community issues by organizing pet food and supply collections, making blankets for individuals experiencing homelessness, leading trash cleanups, creating owl nest boxes and bat houses, and building compost bins. Other projects tackled school improvements through building gaga ball pits, enhancing pollinator gardens, and constructing Little Free Libraries.
Gold Award Girl Scouts are also eligible to apply for a national scholarship to apply to their post-secondary education. The Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) Gold Award Scholarship recognizes and provides significant financial support to one Gold Award Girl Scout per council. At this year’s Highest Awards Celebration, GSWISE will recognize the council’s three scholarship finalists. The council’s recipient will be selected and announced by GSUSA in summer 2024.
“These Girl Scouts receiving their Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards are our community’s next generation of leaders. Throughout their projects, these Girl Scouts have demonstrated incredible courage, dedication, and resilience and have built skills like collaboration, organization, and decision making,” said Ana Simpson, CEO of Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast. “Their commitment to not only growing as individuals, but making a positive impact on their communities and beyond is inspirational. Congratulations to all 423 Girl Scouts. We are proud of you.”
Girl Scouts who receive Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards not only distinguish themselves from peers through their perseverance, grit, and resilience, but they also build their resumes to set themselves up for college scholarships or career opportunities. Research about Girl Scouts who earn Highest Awards shows:
- Eighty-seven percent of Gold Award Girl Scouts agree that earning their Gold Award helped them succeed professionally.
- Eighty-six percent of Gold Award Girl Scouts said earning their Gold Award helped them during college applications and interviews.
- Eighty-two percent of Gold Award Girl Scouts are likely to volunteer versus thirty-three percent of non-alums.
- Eighty-two percent of Gold Award Girl Scouts are more likely to vote frequently versus sixty percent of non-alums.
- Seventy-six percent of Gold Award Girl Scouts are more likely to donate money to causes versus forty-seven percent of non-alums.
In addition, Gold Award Girl Scouts entering any of the U.S. military branches are entitled to enlist at a higher pay grade. Many universities and colleges offer scholarships unique to Gold Award Girl Scouts too.
The Highest Awards Celebration will be hosted on Tuesday, May 21 at Milwaukee Area Technical College Downtown Campus’ Cooley Theater (1015 N. 6th St., Milwaukee). The Gold Award display reception will begin at 5:30 p.m., and the award ceremony will begin at 6:30 p.m. The celebration is supported by generous sponsors, including Gold Sponsor We Energies Foundation.
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About Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast (GSWISE)
Girl Scouts bring their dreams to life and work together to build a better world. Girl Scouts of all backgrounds and abilities can be unapologetically themselves as they discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges. Backed by trusted adult volunteers, mentors, and millions of alums, Girl Scouts lead the way as they find their voices and make changes that affect the issues most important to them. We serve approximately 11,700 girls in grades K5-12 and 5,800 adults who believe in our mission of building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. With programs in Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth, Washington and Waukesha counties, we give every Girl Scout in our council the chance to reach their full leadership potential. To volunteer, reconnect, donate, or join, visit gswise.org, email customercare@gswise.org, or call 800-565-4475.
