LAMORINDA WEEKLY | Gold Award recipients honored


Gold Award recipient Mina Boozarpour from Girl Scout Troop 31361, pictured with Moraga Mayor Roger Wykle. Photos provided

Orinda-Moraga Girl Scouts honored their Gold Award Recipients at a special awards ceremony on Friday, May 17. The Gold Award is the highest award that a Girl Scout may earn. To get the Gold, a scout must first earn a Silver Award and complete a yearlong Leadership Journey (if she did not earn her Silver Award, she must complete two Leadership Journeys). Then, the scout creates a service project that reaches beyond the Girl Scout organization and provides a lasting benefit to the larger community. This project must be reviewed according to strict guidelines, and scouts submit a final report for approval by the Gold Award Committee at the Girl Scout Council. Congratulations to our three Gold Award winners: Mina Boozarpour, Sabrina Fojut, and Lilli Heutmaker.

Boozarpour's Gold Award project helps the homeless in our communities. She identified lack of education as a root cause of homelessness and poverty, and Boozarpour wanted to do more to help homeless children stay in school and succeed. She accomplished this by creating ready-to-use "Tool Boxes" that could be distributed to tutors working with underserved students, and she supplied them to Community Education Partnerships, a nonprofit organization that tutors homeless communities. Boozarpour's materials support CEP's program goals, and the collaboration will ensure that the grade-level and subject-specific materials in her "Tool Boxes" will continue to reach those in need.

Fojut researched statistics around bicycle-related injuries, and decided to focus her Gold Award project on bike safety. She planned a special "Bike Safety Rodeo" at her local elementary school, and coordinated volunteers to help run the big event. She reached out to the Moraga Police Department and arranged for an officer to explain to students the proper rules of the road. Fojut also reached out to a maintenance expert who could show the children how to care for and repair bicycles. Over 50 students benefited from this service to the community - and will now ride safer for it.

Heutmaker's Gold Award project was inspired by her love for dramatic performance. She wrote and directed plays in which elementary students could participate for free. During the process, she learned to organize volunteers, secure performance space, manage scheduling, and navigate setbacks. Lilli successfully brought two plays to stage for her students - at no charge - and she started a high-school-level club to continue this good work.