Nine Costa Mesa Girls Scouts Receive Gold Award

For the first time in 9 years, nine Girl Scouts from Costa Mesa have received the highest honor in Girl Scouting.

The Gold Award, which parallels the Boy Scout Eagle Award, was earned by Sarah Ruiz, Shona Lamb, Gaby Chavez, Michelle Parsons, Catherine Baer and Jennifer Johnston all from Costa Mesa Troop 1062. Also earning the Gold Award, was Stacey Gomez and Emily Sin of Costa Mesa Troop 1680 and Erica Thomas, a Juliette Girl Scout. This award took each girl 1-2 years to complete, ending in a final community project that solved a community problem or need.

It showed extraordinary leadership, organization and commitment. The projects ranged from organizing individuals and groups in making handmade blankets for children in need, developing a program to explain memory loss to a younger audience, providing meals to the Ronald McDonald House, making prayer bracelets for the terminally ill and creating a coloring book on child safety that was handed out at the OC Fair.