Community Corner
Fairfax County Girl Scouts Honored
Dozens of Girl Scouts from the Fairfax County area earned prestigious awards Friday night for long-term service projects
More than 90 Girl Scouts from the Fairfax County area were honored with high ranking awards for major service projects. The Precious Medals Ceremony was held Friday night at the Fairfax Government Center.
The Silver Award, Silver Trefoil Award, and Gold Award are earned depending on your age and the number of service hours that went into your project. Silver Awards demand at least 40 hours of service work whereas the Gold Award requires 80.
Lidia Soto-Harmon is the Chief Executive Officer of the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital. She was also Friday night’s keynote speaker and spoke about how much pride these Girl Scouts obviously take in hard work that benefits the world around them.
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“It is pretty amazing, they’ve made an incredible commitment to their communities,” Soto-Harmon said. “All these projects are girl led.”
And each honored project was distinct. Troop 5641 is comprised of girls from Clifton, Centreville, Herndon and Fairfax. Their Silver Award project was to design and create books about the alphabet and numbers, laminate them and donate them to the Headstart Program in Herndon.
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“It was fun to do with friends and a great thing to do for the community,” said Catey Susco from Clifton. “[The best part was] seeing the kids faces when we gave them the books.”
Soto-Harmon said these projects really tie into the Girl Scout mission.
“One of the amazing things about Girl Scouts is the concept of discovery, connect, take action. With all of these projects, girls are using that philosophy."
Some of the award projects took two to three years to complete. One Gold Award recipient raised service dogs for Companions for Independence and wrote a novel about the experience which is now available within the Fairfax County Public Library System.
Tess Irelan lives in Fairfax City and she earned her Silver Award working at a Girl Scout Camp. She says she’s thrilled to be recognized for her work, but also happy to be part of Girl Scouts for another reason.
“It’s good to have something for just girls,” she said.
