When young girls want to get more involved with their community, they join a group called Girl Scouts of America, where girls can learn to lead while also having fun, making friends, and giving back.
From Daisies to Brownies, from Brownies to Juniors, from Juniors to Cadettes, Cadettes to Seniors, and ultimately to Ambassadors, a Girl Scout’s journey takes time and dedication.
Senior Katleyn Lutz started her journey through Girl Scouts in the fourth grade in the Junior group. As she reaches the end of her time with the Girl Scout group, she is working to get her Gold Award, which is the highest award you can get in Girl Scouts.
“It’s the highest award you can achieve as a Girl Scout,” Lutz said. “ You have to be a senior or ambassador to do it; you have to have already gotten your Bronze or Silver award.
The award is important for a Girl Scout because it shows their dedication to their community and to being a Girl Scout.
As the girls go through the program, they receive a few different awards before you can get your Gold Award.
“Bronze award is for the juniors,” Lutz said. “The juniors silver award is for cadets, and senior Girl Scouts… they’re basically just community projects.”
The dedication and determination needed to achieve the honorable Gold Award is important. Karen Deluca, the foods and child care teacher at the high school, believes Lutz has the determination needed to achieve her goal.
Photograph by Tracy Lutz
“Yes, she is determined and committed, serving the Growing Tree as a teacher in her junior year and as a senior director as a 12th grader,” said Deluca. “Katelyn is committed to contributing high quality work to the program, whether that’s through supporting the Growing Tree teachers as they write lesson plans or providing leadership as she guides the preschool program activities.”
She’s not the only one who believes that Lutz has the right mindset. Her troop leader and mom Tracy Lutz also has faith in her work ethic.
Photograph by Katelyn Lutz
“Katelyn has been committed to her Gold Award journey,” Tracy Lutz said. “She has explored many different ideas for her project. She has worked to determine the project with a lasting impact on a passion of hers – young children. While I am her Scout leader and mom, I am not allowed to help Katelyn on this project. She has to do it all on her own. Katelyn has been very disciplined in her work ethic for this project by researching the items to place in the Growing Tree classroom that will last and provide the greatest impact on the kids. She has partnered with Community and School members to help her achieve her fundraising goals.”
The time and effort that Lutz has been putting into being able to get her Gold Award shows in the work she does. In order to be able to get the Gold Award the Girl Scout must have over 80 hours of community service.
“The hours have go towards your community, and it has to be sustainable, so that’s ideally five years without any interventions,” Lutz said.
She does all different kinds of community service.
Photograph by Tracy Lutz
“With Girl Scouts every year at the New Freedom Carnival, we do the popcorn, so this summer, I was there for three or four nights…,” Lutz said. “… and then we do the New Freedom tree lighting every year. I have that coming up…. in November. That’s probably gonna be 10 hours itself because of all the baking, and then we hand out all the cookies and…talk to people and stuff.”
As she gets closer to completing her community service hours, she also gets closer to getting her award, and she starts to consider what she is going to do after she officially gets the award.
“After sending my gold award, I plan to apply to the Gold Award Scholarship,” Lutz said. “Although I won’t be a Girl Scout for much longer, I know I will continue to use the skills I’ve learned for the rest of my life.”
