According to the Girl Scout Law, Girl Scouts must ‘Make the World a Better Place.’ This year, nine Girl Scouts belonging to Girl Scout Troop 11302 earned their Presidential Volunteer Service Awards, eight at the Gold Level and one at the Silver Level. The President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) recognizes United States citizens 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. Earning this award is a tremendous honor.
President’s Volunteer Service Awards are offered at multiple levels and are designed to recognize each milestone of one’s service achievement. For teens ages 11-15 years old, levels include Bronze (50-74 hours), Silver (75-99 hours), and Gold (100+ hours.) These nine awards were earned for the time period July 1, 2020, through June 30, 2021.
Awards are issued by approved certifying organizations; Girl Scouts of America is one such organization. Along with the ultimate honor of presidential recognition, these Girl Scouts received a personalized certificate, an official pin, medallion, and a congratulatory letter from the President of the United States.
Ava, Ella, Landen, Niya, Raquel, Rawni, Sophia and Tricia each contributed 100+ hours, working on numerous Service to Scouting and Community Service Projects during COVID-19; Alyssa contributed over 75 hours. Such community service projects included mask-making for essential workers, card writing for lonely seniors, buying and sorting holiday gifts for less fortunate children, and sewing pillowcases for children with cancer.
For eight of these girls, this award marks the fourth consecutive year the PVSA award was earned. They have volunteered hundreds of hours to help their community and others. Currently, they continue to serve younger Girl Scouts by offering badge events over Zoom, serving girls across the United States and around the world.
Girl Scout Troop 11302 is comprised of nine girls at the Senior level (9th-10th grades.) The girls who belong to this troop attend various schools and mostly come from Santa Rosa, Windsor and Healdsburg. Heading into their 10th year of scouting, these girls traveled to Savannah, Georgia this past summer to visit the birthplace of the founder of Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low. There, the girls were also able to visit the Girl Scout First Headquarters.
Despite COVID restrictions, the girls in troop 11302 continue to be involved in the community, recently hosting a Halloween booth this past October allowing children in our community to decorate rocks for the #KindnessRockGarden they installed a few years ago. They continue to maintain the bee habitat and hummingbird garden they installed next to the Windsor Museum and Hembree House. Just recently, troop 11302 shopped for and donated gifts for the Girl Scout Holiday Gift Program, hoping to help nine children have a more special holiday.
For more information about The Presidential Service Volunteer award, go to: https://www.presidentialserviceawards.gov/
