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Allison Taylor, 17, has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award. (Vera Davis-Herald/Review) |
Posted on 11/24/2008 2:27:31 PM PST by SandRat
SIERRA VISTA — Allison Taylor has been in Girl Scouts since she was in kindergarten.
And over the summer, the 17-year-old earned the highest award she could as a Girl Scout, the Gold Award, making her the first person in Senior/Ambassador Troop 785 from the Fort Huachuca Service Unit — to the best of the current troop leaders’ knowledge — to receive it.
“It’s such a rare thing, but the leadership qualities you gain from earning it I really wanted,” Taylor said of her decision to work toward the award.
For her project, Taylor wanted to do something that would get her outdoors.
“I’m kind of an outdoorsy person,” she said.
What she ended up doing was cleaning up and repainting an abandoned search and rescue helipad on Huachuca Mountain Peak.
Taylor felt renovating the helipad would help provide response to hikers who are injured.
“It allows easier access to them if they’re injured,” she explained.
Prior to even doing the renovation, Taylor had to get permission from all the necessary people on Fort Huachuca, such as Garrison Commander Col. Melissa Sturgeon, in addition to environmentalists who told Taylor what kind of paints she could use.
Taylor’s work in that part of the project was a learning experience for most involved.
“This year has kind of been a building one,” said Taylor’s mother, Wendy, who’s also her troop leader. “Allison’s project was certainly a pioneering effort ... it’s a learning process on both sides.”
With several other girls in the troop working toward their Gold Awards, Wendy said Taylor’s experience lets both the troop and people on post know what to expect the next time around.
The work on the helipad itself was physically demanding, Taylor said, requiring about a two-and-a-half-mile hike, which took about an hour and a half, to reach the pad for Taylor and the nine-person team she’d compiled.
“Carrying tools, it was a long hike,” Taylor said.
According to her Girl Scout Gold Award final report, Taylor said the work was tough.
“Not only did we have grass, but also shrubs and bushes that had grown through the helipad,” Taylor wrote. The helipad is approximately 40 feet by 40 feet.
Taylor said there was immediate satisfaction in completing the labor part of the project.
“The impact of this project is simple to see,” she wrote in her final report. “Previously, there was no way an emergency helicopter could service the Huachuca Peak complex. Now, a helicopter can land in complete safety from a pad that can be easily viewed at altitude.”
The total completion time for her Gold Award project, from conception to the final report, was 153 hours, through which Taylor said she learned a lot.
“I’ve definitely learned more about patience,” she said, in addition to developing leadership skills.
Wendy said it was neat, both as a mother and Taylor’s troop leader, to see Taylor receive her Gold Award.
“It really makes me proud of her because she’s grown up in even more ways than I could have imagined,” Wendy said.
Herald/Review reporter Katie Evans can be reached at 515-4611 or by e-mail at katie.evans@svherald.com.
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Allison Taylor, 17, has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award. (Vera Davis-Herald/Review) |
Don’t see too many of those
Good for her! Her family must be very proud.
Me want Girl Scout cookie!!!!
Should I assume that this is the Girl Scout equivalent of Eagle? Awesome accomplishment!
Girl Scouts???? come on isnt that the junior organization for the NOW and GBLT gang? Seriously the national girl scout council supports abortion, homosexual girl scout leaders, enviornmental terrorism, etc....
Sorry but anybody stupid enough to give a dime to the girl scouts is an idiot.
Im sure however that this girl is a great kid and mean no reference to her in the slightest.
What a great accomplishment by a fine young woman.
AND too bad it was while involved with an organization that is a little too cozy with Planned Parenthood for my liking. I had to drop out, after being a leader for a few years, because I could no longer ignore the connection.
This association has led to a policy, for example, that the position advocated re: pre-marital sex is that it’s ok as long as the young woman is informed nad acts responsibly.
NOT what I think is in the best interests of young women, and NOT what I think the founder of the GSA would agree with. (Probably rolling in her grave...)
Not only is the GS org eat up with feminazis, they are an anal retentive group as well. Lighting a candle at an event requires a fire permit sent to parents and fire training for leaders.
My daughter just got her Silver Award.
Yes it is.
The local Service Unit here is very stringent, almost on par with BSA’s high Standards.
I'd respectfully ask that you to check out your local Service Unit before making such strident statements.
I grant you that GSA has it’s flaws Nationally; yet the local Service Units for the most part maintain much higher standards.
The local Service Unit here is very stringent, almost on par with BSA’s high Standards.
Yes it is. And as an Eagle Scout for the last 38+yrs I heartily congratulate her on a job well done. It takes drive and perseverance. Good job!
Good for her! I remember how rewarding my Eagle Scout was, and even though I detest some of the higher-up policies of the GSA, getting a Gold Award is a big deal.
Congratulations and best of luck!
I do not deny that on a local level a lot of good is done - that is why I joined in the first place. But make no mistake, a small portion of the money you raise goes to the national level.
I could not in good conscience be a part of that any more.
If I had more time and energy, I would tell all local leaders to stand up *against* these policies and “take back” the GSA... not going to happen — too many other windmills for me right now.
So instead I take the position that I don’t shy away from telling people why I left, and tell them that I support their own decision whether or not to stay, but I just feel that they should be aware.
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