2025 Gold Award Girl Scouts
Recognizing Girl Scouts who’ve demonstrated leadership and made a positive, lasting impact in the world.
Gold Award Girl Scouts
The Girl Scout Gold Award represents the highest achievement in Girl Scouting.
This prestigious award challenges Girl Scouts in high school to change the world—or at least their corner of it. Since 1916, the best and brightest Girl Scouts have undertaken Gold Award projects.
We recognize the dedication of these leaders who identified a need in their community, built a team, developed a plan, and took action to improve their communities and beyond.
Congratulations to these Girl Scouts who join a remarkable century-long tradition of leadership:
Alexa Brodd
Fiona Bryant
Lucy Chaney
Isabella Escritt
Kimberly Evans
Katie Finken
Alexis Hanson
Addison McManus
Mackenzie Mumm
Addison Pithan
Vittoria Quaranta
Meadow Reinders
Mikaela Roger
Renee Stehlik
Elizabeth Stratton
Pat Meyer Gold Award Girl Scouts of Distinction
Pat Meyer Gold Award Girl Scout of Distinction is awarded to Gold Award Girl Scouts whose final Take Action projects demonstrate extraordinary leadership, address a local challenge that relates to a national and/or global issue, and has a measurable and sustainable impact.
Pat Meyer was a lifelong Girl Scout devoted to supporting girls and helping Girl Scouts earn their Gold Awards. In 2014, the Pat Meyer family created a Girl Scout award in her memory.
Congratulations to the this year’s recipients:
Isabella Escritt: Isabella transformed a vacant lot in Hebron into a vibrant community space. Thanks to her initiative and the help of local volunteers, this area now serves as a hub for various community events and activities.
Abigail Pieper: Abigail remodeled her local DHHS family interview room to create a safer and more inviting space for children. She built toy and book shelves from recycled wood palettes and provides weekly cleaning.
Vittoria Quaranta: Vittoria partnered with Autism Family Network to create “Unified Entrepreneurs,” a club that teaches entrepreneurial skills to teens and young adults with disabilities, leading to the creation of several small businesses.
Alexa Brodd
Hometown: Ames
Parents: Daryl and Ann Brodd
Troop Co-Leaders: Ann Brodd and Deb Mullally
Project Advisor: Lisa Poppe
Tornado Safety and Preparednes Program for Kids
On May 12, 2023, the home and family farm of Gold Award Girl Scout Alexa were destroyed by an EF2 tornado near North Bend. After surviving such a devastating disaster, she became interested in educating youth about tornado safety/ preparedness in Dodge County. Alexa's project taught youth valuable skills about being safe and prepared for a natural disaster by making storm-survival kits. As her project progressed, Alexa applied for grants to get funding, interviewed a meteorologist, and became a trained severe weather storm spotter. In the process, Girl Scouts, Scouts BSA, 4-H members, and other students in her community earned badges, patches, and had the opportunity to enter their tornado survivor kits at county fairs. Alexa put her leadership skills into action throughout the course of her project by coordinating dates and times for education workshops. Additionally, Alexa used her public speaking skills to tell others in her community about her project and developed team-building skills as she worked with others to accomplish her goals. Over the course of her project, Alexa taught youth survival skills while she became a better leader and role model for her community.
Fiona Bryant
Hometown: Omaha
Parents: Matthew Bryant and Sienna Bryant
Troop Co-Leader: Rachael Olson
Project Advisor: Bethany Barelman
Civic Engagement Resources for Nebraska Public Libraries
Before the 2024 election, Gold Award Girl Scout Fiona noticed an opportunity for her local public library to bring election information to the community. Even as an avid library patron, she did not realize all the resources her library had to offer, such as voter registration. Her project focused on equipping public libraries in Nebraska with comprehensive information for encouraging civic engagement.
Fiona started by creating election resources and social media posts for the Omaha Public Library before the election. The social media posts reached over 1,000 community members, and a blog post with voting information was viewed by over 200 individuals.
Then, she took her learning from helping the Omaha Public Library and wrote a 40-page guide with the League of Women Voters of Nebraska and Civic Nebraska. The guide compiled information about Nebraska political processes, civic engagement programming ideas, and ideas for community collaboration so libraries across the state can encourage political participation in future elections. This guide was distributed by the Nebraska Library Commission and shared with 15 civic organizations. For this, Fiona earned the Nebraska Library Association Outstanding Volunteer Award and was invited on the Nebraska Library Commission’s webinar to promote the guide.
Lucy Chaney
Hometown: Nebraska City
Parents: Joe and Brooke Chaney
Troop Co-Leader: Brooke Chaney
Project Advisors: Lisa Chaney and Tammy Partsch
Community Resource Directory
Gold Award Girl Scout Lucy’s project connects people in Nebraska City with the community resources and support they might need to assist with various challenges they might encounter. It also aims to help citizens connect to volunteer and service opportunities and become more involved in their community through advocacy and volunteerism. Her project utilized community experts and partnered with local agencies to attain information and make sure it would be sustainable and accessible.
We are fortunate to have many great agencies, organizations, and groups in our community that offer help. The challenge for community members is that many of these services and programs rely on word-of-mouth, or people may lack the skills and connections to find services, resources, and groups.
Through this project, Lucy was able to help families be healthier and feel supported and connected with their community. She hopes it will improve people’s quality of life and help those in need see the caring nature of our community and help others see gaps, needs, and ways to support people in our community. She hopes that organizations will continue to see value in the directory and see it as a useful way of communicating their services.
Backyard Bricks
Isabella Escritt
Hometown: Hebron
Parents: Bill and Lindsey Escritt
Troop Co-Leaders: Lindsey Escritt and Cris Smith
Project Advisor: Jamie Luttrell
Driving past the vacant lot on Main Street every day to school, Gold Award Girl Scout Isabella knew this was not depicting the beautiful town of Hebron she had grown up in. She put together her idea of a mural and games area, and contacted City Clerk, Jana Tietjen, to see how she could assist with the city’s efforts and ideas for the area.
Her goal was to add beauty to the area to help the town grow and thrive. She worked with local muralist, and her project mentor, Jamie Luttrell, to prepare and paint the wall for the large mural—featuring different aspects of the community of Hebron. Isabella also added landscaping under the mural to help showcase the mural. Throughout the creation of “Backyard Bricks,” community members of all ages stepped up to help build a pergola, fence, hang lights, lay bricks and beautify the area.
Isabella put together yard games for the area so people could stop and play a game of cornhole or yard Jenga. Since its inception, “Backyard Bricks” has hosted a fall bash, Girl Scout meetings, family functions, markets, and an outdoor movie night.
Kimberly Evans
Hometown: Phillips
Parents: Rob and Penny Evans
Troop Co-Leaders: Penny Evans and Megan Sweet
Project Advisor: Alisha Epp
Outdoor Skills Challenge Programs
Confidence is a major factor in a girl’s success in both Girl Scouts, and in life. In order to cultivate confidence in young girls, Gold Award Girl Scout Kimberly designed, created, and ran a series of camp programs focused on challenging participants in outdoor skills—including fire-starting, knots and lashings, orienteering, and sharps usage.
To conclude the series, Kimberly ran a four-day challenge experience reviewing all the previously listed skills. This provided an opportunity for previous Girl Scouts participants to share their knowledge and help new participants. In doing so, they learned how to practice a skill, teach that skill, and refine that skill to the point of confidence.
These programs allowed girls to learn outdoor skills—skills that many girls lack. By creating a safe space to try something new, the Girl Scouts were able to fail, try again, and persevere when things got difficult. Her program curriculum was then added to Girl Scouts Spirit of Nebraska camp staff training manuals throughout the state.
Kaitlyn Finken
Hometown: Omaha
Parents: Kevin and Erin Finken
Troop Co-Leader: Erin Finken
Project Advisor: Hailey Thiem
Maha Marie Museum Renovation
Girl Scout history has always been very important to Gold Award Girl Scout Katie. While speaking with a Daisy Girl Scout at camp, Katie realized that the Daisy didn’t recognize a picture of Girl Scout founder, Juliette Gordon Low, and knew she had to act.
Katie spent the next two years, over 350 hours personally, and over 1500 hours combined for her team: sanitizing, organizing, and cataloging thousands of artifacts for the Marie Museum at Camp Maha. She secured new oak display cabinets, built new walls, installed a display TV and new lighting, then painted, cleaned, and sealed each space to make it suitable for museum artifacts. She researched each piece and displayed them with care, ordered by era, for future Girl Scouts to enjoy. Next, Katie created a virtual tour, a self-guided audio tour for in-person visitors, and a patch program for girls. The Marie Museum also now includes a memorial mural tribute to Tyler Cherrington (for whom the TLC Welcome Center is named), acknowledgments of Girl Scout donors, and tributes to Camp Wa-Shawtee (a former Girl Scout camp in western Iowa). Spirit of Nebraska’s Marie Museum is now on Girl Scouts of USA’s list of official Girl Scout museums. Katie hopes that through her efforts, girls will enjoy the museum for years to come and learn about Girl Scouts’ rich history.
Alexis Hanson
Hometown: Blair
Parents: Tanya and Carl Hanson
Troop Co-Leader: Tanya Hanson
Project Advisor: Jamie Bachmann
Geocaching Adventures
Ever since the global pandemic, inflation and high prices can be seen throughout the United States. Many fun activities may cost lots of money, which impacts people’s ability to be involved with those activities. That’s why Gold Award Girl Scout Alexis decided to highlight the free activity called “geocaching.” Geocaching is a treasure hunting activity that involves using a smartphone app to find the “treasure,” which is referred to as a “geocache.”
For her Gold Award project, Alexis created and hid her own geocaches throughout Washington County, then submitted her geocaches for approval on the geocaching app. Now, anyone can find her geocaches with the free app. Additionally, Alexis hosted an event so she could teach her younger sister’s troop how to geocache. She also set up a booth at a Blair community event to promote and teach people how to geocache.
Geocaching is not only a recreational activity—it’s also an activity that promotes enjoying time outside, getting exercise, and spending time with family or friends. So, if anyone is ever in need of a free and fun activity for themselves or the whole family, geocaching is definitely an option!
Pollinate the State
Addison McManus
Hometown: Kearney
Parents: Matt and Amy McManus
Troop Co-Leaders: Lindsay Davis, Cecilia Fick, and Amy McManus
Project Advisor: Coelette Gruber
More than one-third of global crops depend on bees for pollination. The decline of pollinator habitats is increasing. By planting this garden, Gold Award Girl Scout Addison hopes to help combat this decline. She worked with the City of Kearney’s horticulturist to design the garden, write a grant application, order flowers, and plant a pollinator garden. During the design phase, she also researched plants that are native to her area, so the garden will continue to thrive with minimal upkeep.
While attending Meadowlark Elementary, she served on the student board for the Dry Land Riverwalk. This is an area beside the school that is used for many things, including an outdoor classroom, break area, Spooktacular festival, and more. When considering what she wanted to do for her Gold Award, she thought planting this garden would be a great way to give back to the school. Not only will it provide a place for pollinators to rest and get food—it adds a beautiful garden to the Dry Land Riverwalk at Meadowlark Elementary.
Mackenzie Mumm
Hometown: Geneva
Parents: Heather and Brian Mumm
Troop Co-Leader: Heather Mumm
Project Advisor: Megan Williams
Literacy Program for Kids
Gold Award Girl Scout Mackenzie created a program to inform parents in her community about the importance of reading literacy at a young age. The project started as a book drive from donated books for daycares in her community. As the book drive progressed, she educated parents and created several fliers about the importance of reading literacy at a young age. To create fliers, Mackenize interviewed Pre-K to second grade teachers at her school. At the end of her project, she had built a Little Library and placed it outside of her church. In the Library, there are books for all ages. Every time she goes to check on her Little Library, she sees it’s always stuffed full of new books and tries to exchange the holiday books. There are many people in her community that use the Little Library.
Manny’s Kitchen
Addison Pithan
Hometown: Plattsmouth
Parent: Sara Pithan
Troop Co-Leader: Jeniffer Miller
Project Advisor: Amy Woods
After attending mission trips with her church, Gold Award Girl Scout Addison was inspired to give back to her community by addressing food insecurity. She created “Manny’s Kitchen” at Immanuel Lutheran Church, with the mission of educating and empowering individuals facing food insecurity. Manny’s Kitchen became an outreach program that educates participants on how to cook simple, nutritious meals with limited resources.
Addison formed and led several teams within her church to ensure the success of Manny’s Kitchen. These teams focused on different aspects of the program, including advertising, recipe creation, and event planning. With the support of her team members, Addison organized six successful cooking classes, reaching nearly 25 families in the community. These workshops not only taught participants practical cooking skills, but also emphasized the importance of nutrition when meal planning and demonstrated healthier options, even with limited resources.
The impact of Manny’s Kitchen has been profound, as it has empowered individuals and families to create healthy meals at home, helping them to overcome the challenges of food insecurity while strengthening a sense of community. Through Addison’s leadership, the program has left a lasting impression on many lives.
Vittoria Quaranta
Hometown: Lincoln
Parents: Davide Quarant and Jennifer Burgard-Quaranta
Troop Co-Leaders: Jennifer BurgardQuaranta and Heidi Crawford
Project Advisor: Cathy Martinez
Unified Entrepreneurs
Individuals with disabilities are twice as likely to be unemployed or underemployed than people without disabilities, limiting independence. Gold Award Girl Scout Vittoria partnered with Lincoln’s Autism Family Network to create “Unified Entrepreneurs,” a club to combat this issue on a local scale.
Her goal was to teach teens and young adults with disabilities how to make their own income and become young entrepreneurs through monthly club meetings. Meetings focused on a variety of topics—ranging from exploring passions to lessons on marketing, profit, and more. Her Gold Award led to the start-up of multiple small businesses, some of which have continued for over a year. The club’s first year culminated with a sale in the community, with profits for some teens reaching over $150.
Unified Entrepreneurs has continued into its second year with no signs of stopping. More teens continue to be recruited into the program, both as mentors and participants. This program has made a positive impact in the community, providing young people with disabilities the skills, confidence, and opportunities to explore entrepreneurship and create their own businesses.
The Caring Closet
Meadow Reinders
Hometown: Valentine
Parents: Jason and Carrie Reinders
Troop Co-Leader: Carrie Reinders
Project Advisor: Shelby Schmit
In a community where resources can sometimes be limited, students often face the critical challenge of lacking immediate access to essential items when they need them most. Recognizing this need, Gold Award Girl Scout Meadow created “The Caring Closet”—a welcoming space where students can access clothing, food, and hygiene products free of charge. Her mission was to ensure that no student goes without the essentials they need to thrive.
She built The Caring Closet at Todd County High School to make a meaningful difference. This dedicated space provides clothing, footwear, food, hygiene products, school supplies, and essential household items to any student needing support. Additionally, Meadow has thoughtfully organized a collection of prom dresses, dress clothes, shoes, and accessories, ensuring every student has free and accessible options to look and feel their best for special occasions. Through her Gold Award Project, she didn’t just build The Caring Closet— she opened the door to a wide range of essential resources for every student at Todd County High School, making a lasting impact where needed most.
Mikaela
Roger
Hometown: Lincoln
Parents: Rosalia Roger and David Alfonso Roger
Troop Co-Leader: Katrina Chambers
Project Advisor: Mike Kunce
The Custodians of the Little Free Libraries
For more than a decade, Little Free Libraries have been an integral part in society’s mission to abolish illiteracy across the globe. The goal of Gold Award Girl Scout Mikaela’s project was to create a community book exchange that provided a constant source of book donations to all the Little Free Libraries of Lincoln and the surrounding communities. The passion to make a difference in her community while helping others is what drove Mikaela to create “The Custodians of the Little Free Libraries.”
To accomplish this goal, Mikaela used her established relationship with local Veteran of Foreign War Post #131 in establishing a space within their meeting area to house the community book exchange. Members of both VFW Post #131 and Auxiliary will collect book donations and fit them with anti-theft stickers before distributing them across the community. They will also provide opportunities to youth and other non-profit organizations to host book drives and assist in growing the literacy movement. In addition, by securing a permanent collaboration with the monthly Community Free Market and “WordStock”—the annual book swap hosted by Linked 2 Literacy—this community exchange will continue.
Mindful Moments
Renee Stehlik
Hometown: Nebraska City
Parents: Carol and James Stehlik
Troop Co-Leader: Carol Stehlik
Project Advisor: Amy Reyes
“Mindful Moments” is a project based on providing a safe and anonymous environment for people to receive mental health services and information. Today, there is a negative stigma surrounding mental health, causing so many people to feel lost and unworthy of care and love. This project aimed to help fight the stigma and shed a more positive light on mental wellbeing and mental illness.
Gold Award Girl Scout Renee partnered with many organizations to receive essential resources to help tackle issues such as: addiction, depression, anxiety, abuse, and violence. Boxes full of resources and uplifting messages are placed at both sides of the Meridian Bridge in Yankton, South Dakota, sporting messages such as “You Matter.” Civilians are encouraged to take as many resources as they need to help them face whatever challenges they may encounter. Mental health is an issue that is incredibly prevalent in today’s society, and hopefully, this project will help break the stigma in her town.
Elizabeth Stratton
Hometown: Bellevue
Parents: Ryan and Katherine Stratton
Project Advisor: Stacy Reimer
Paint the World with Kindness
Kindness is being taught less frequently, especially when children are young and impressionable, yet it’s important to instill this skill in them. Gold Award Girl Scout Elizabeth addressed this issue with her Gold Award project by helping teach the children about kindness. She did this through one of her favorite things that, like kindness, is also being taught less—art.
At her old elementary school, Elizabeth held a “Kindness Spirit Week.” Events included dress-up days and challenges for the children (such as making a new friend at recess, sitting next to someone new at lunch, etc). She asked the children to design different mural ideas and selected a winner. She then painted a mural with the message “Bee Kind” which features bright colors, flowers, and friendly bees to appeal to the kids. As a final way to get everyone involved, she asked the children and staff at the school to design unique bees, which were turned into one-of-a-kind buttons so everyone could be united. Elizabeth gave these children a fun experience they won’t forget, a beautiful mural, a fun tradition for the school to continue each year, and an important lesson.
GSSN Gold Award Committee
The Spirit of Nebraska Gold Award Committee plays a crucial role in the highest achievement for Gold Award Girl Scouts by ensuring all Gold Award projects meet Girl Scouts of the USA national guidelines and providing guidance to ensure a consistent and meaningful project experience.
Kristin Ageton
Emma Bitterman
Erin Finken
Tammy Harveson
Susan Nickels
Jen Quaranta
Maria Reiter
Libby Riley
Katie Schueths
Thank You!
Thank you to all of our dedicated Troop Co-Leaders, Project Advisors, and Gold Award Committee volunteers for their invaluable time and dedication to supporting our future leaders. Your commitment makes a lasting impact on the lives of Girl Scouts and their communities!