The Gold Award, the highest honor in Girl Scouting, has been awarded to 35 local girls this year from the Girl Scouts–Arizona Cactus-Pine Council, with four girls from Tempe earning the award. 

The prestigious Gold Award is presented to girls in grades nine to 12 who have utilized the skills acquired in Girl Scouts to showcase sustainable and measurable impact through problem-solving of relevant issues on a local or national level by completing a Gold Award-worthy project, a press release explained.

“Making an impact on our world is what being a Girl Scout is all about. Each Gold Award project is a journey that tells a story of a girl and the cause that is important to her,” Mary Mitchell, co-CEO of GSACPC, stated in the release. 

The 2024 Gold Award class represents a variety of service projects that target an array of relevant issues. 

Projects included establishing programs to improve mental and physical health, sustainability, and animal welfare, as well as addressing gender bias, lack of medical access, gaps in educational curriculum and more, the release stated.

"Gold Awardees have long laid the groundwork for impactful projects through their involvement in Girl Scouts and this is just the beginning for this group of young innovators," Christina Spicer, co-CEO of GSACPC, stated in the release. "Recipients are not only carrying this honor and meaningful change with them for life, but also setting themselves apart in scholarship applications, college admission essays, and job interviews.”

The 2024 Gold Award Girl Scouts in Tempe and their impactful projects are:

• London Brown – Loom Love 
• Sophia Moreno – Capturing Impacts of the 1970s Labor Rights Movement 
• Isabella Small – Type 1 Diabetes Youth Connect Organization
• Diana Spellman – Scottish Highland Dancing in Arizona