Two Clear Lake Girl Scouts earn Gold Awards

Girl Scout seniors Danielle Gaeckler and Erin Ash recently earned the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council Gold Award.

To earn the award, Gaeckler hosted a junior high transition event to benefit the Friendswood Friends Church food pantry. She invited close to 30 students from the fifth through eighth grades to a five-hour event to introduce the different age groups. The entrance fee was $5 or five cans of food. All proceeds went to Friendswood Friends Church to restock the food pantry.

“[I learned] that I work well with children,” says Gaeckler, a senior at Friendswood High School. “[I also learned] that when you’re heading up a project, people depend on you to lead in all areas.”

Ash earned her Gold Award by improving the playground at Bales Intermediate School. She painted and designed a basketball key, adding pea gravel, creating a hopscotch and four-square game area and pressure washing the equipment. The project took more than five months and 100 hours, with three to 10 volunteers.
 
“[I learned that] mainly, plans change,” says Erin, a junior at School of the Woods High School. “Things don’t always go as expected.”

The Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can achieve. Less than five percent of girls who join Girl Scouts earn this recognition. It takes more than 100 service hours and two to three years of work to complete the award requirements, which include planning and completing a project that is a service to the community.

Both girls are active members in the Girl Scouts. Gaeckler has earned her Bronze and Silver Awards. Following graduation, she plans to attend college to receive her teaching degree. Ash has been involved in selling Girl Scout cookies and fall products. After graduation, she plans to attend college or the Culinary Institute to become a restaurant chef manager.