This year, seven Girls Scouts belonging to Windsor Girl Scout Troop 11302 earned their Presidential Volunteer Service Awards (PVSA) at the gold level. The PVSA recognizes United States citizens and lawfully admitted, permanent residents of the United States who have achieved the required number of hours of service over a 12-month time period or cumulative hours over the course of a lifetime.
PVSAs are offered in multiple levels and are designed to recognize each milestone of one’s service achievement. Levels include Bronze (50-74 hours), Silver (75-99 hours), Gold (100+ hours) and the highest honor, the President’s Lifetime Achievement Award for those who contribute more than 4,000 hours of service in their lifetime. These seven gold level awards were earned for the period of time July 1, 2018 through June 30, 2019.
Awards are issued by approved certifying organizations; Girl Scouts of America is one such organization. Along with the presidential recognition, recipients receive a personalized certificate, an official pin, medallion or coin and a congratulatory letter from the president of the United States.Â
Ava Gonzales, Ella Senkowski, Landen Smith, Niya Brown, Rawni Self, Sophia Williams and Tricia McMahon each contributed well over 100 hours, working on numerous Service to Scouting and Community Service projects. One such community service project included the maintenance of the Windsor Bee Habitat and Hummingbird Garden the troop installed as part of their Silver award project in 2017. This garden is situated adjacent to the Historical Hembree House and Windsor Senior Center.
For six of these girls, this award marks the second consecutive year the Gold Level PVSA award was earned. Collectively, these girls have volunteered hundreds of hours to help their community and others.
Girl Scout Troop 11302 is a Windsor based troop comprised of 11 girls, at the Cadette and Senior levels. The girls who belong to this troop attend various schools and come from Santa Rosa, Windsor and Healdsburg. Heading into their ninth year of scouting, these girls are very active within their community. In addition to installing and maintaining the Windsor Bee Habitat and Hummingbird Garden, they created a Kindness Rock Garden located on the Town Green, worked with the town to create park signage advising folks about the anti-smoking and vaping ordinances, helped younger scouts earn badges and awards, donated sleeping bags to the homeless, created birthday kits for women and children’s shelters and filled and donated Christmas bags for less fortunate Sonoma County children.
