Eleven Hamilton County Girl Scouts have earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn.
Julia Cleary Bricker
Julia Cleary Bricker attended Carmel High School and was a Girl Scout for 12 years.
She noticed that larger community gardens may lack resources and/or manpower to effectively care for their gardens. This was important to her to be solved because food poverty is one of the most prevalent issues in the urban United States and community gardens in impoverished areas are often the only sources of fresh produce for the residents surrounding them. She decided to build an irrigation system in Fletcher Place’s Garden to allow for volunteers to spend more time working on other more important tasks while the garden waters itself.
Julia also earned the Girl Scout Silver Award and a $10,000 Girl Scouts of the USA Gold Award scholarship. She is the daughter of Susan Sutton and plans to pursue a degree in Architecture at Virginia Tech.
Audrey Cox
Audrey Cox attended Carmel High School and has been a Girl Scout for 12 years.
She noticed that her community had become reliant on the use of technology and that creativity was waning, so she put together take and make kits for teens and create a use for the technology that would help their creativity rather than not hinder it. She chose this project because her little sister thrives on art and creativity, and she found it difficult to see that be hindered in others.
Audrey is the daughter of Wendy and Brian Cox, and she also earned the Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Awards. She plans to attend Purdue University in the fall to study Biochemistry and Forensic Sciences.
Gene Gerardot
Gene Gerardot attended Fishers High School and was a 13-year Girl Scout.
Gene noticed that the outdoor learning garden at Sand Creek Elementary across from her high school was run down and did not seem maintained. She worked with SCE staff to create a safe, sustainable, engaging, and educational learning garden; and then built a music wall, constructed a rock garden that included multiple types of rocks, sewed curtains for the chicken coop, constructed a chalk board that teachers could use to instruct their students outdoors, revamped the school’s life size chess set, and created a pumpkin patch.
Also a Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Awards recipient and the daughter of Amy and Anthony Gerardo, Gene is a Freshman at Indiana University.
Taryn Lynn Ginnan
Taryn Lynn Ginnan attended Hamilton Heights High School and was a Girl Scout for 14 years.
She noticed that kids in the foster care system don’t have a lot of items that they need for daily care. If they did have items, they carried them in a trash bag because they didn’t have a suitcase or backpack. Because she cares deeply about youth, particularly those in foster care, she made more than 250 To Go Bags for them. The bags contained handmade blankets and pillows and donated items such as shampoo, conditioner, soap, a book, tissues, toothbrush and toothpaste, and water bottles.
Taryn also earned the Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Awards. She is the daughter of Shane and Kimberly Ginnan and is now a theater arts major at Vincennes University.
Celia Hamilton
Celia Hamilton attended Carmel High School and has been in Girl Scouts for 13 years.
She noticed the need for youth involvement at the Hamilton County Artists’ Association. She reached out to all area middle and high schools to find interested youth to join the HCAA youth membership council, creating an opportunity for creative youth to learn from and inspire professional artists and each other, and to volunteer in community events. Celia chose this project because she volunteered and the HCAA and saw interest from other teens to become more involved in the arts and community.
Celia also earned the Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Awards. She is the daughter of Melinda and Todd Hamilton and plans to attend the Purdue University Mitchell E. Daniels Jr. School of Business.
Cara Harvey
Cara Harvey attended Fishers High School and is a 13-year Girl Scout.
Sparked by memories of her neighborhood park and to encourage people to spend more time outside, do physical activity, and potentially make new friends after the COVID quarantine, she painted games in the neighborhood park path. The neighborhood HOA helped support this project so that it could be of great benefit to everyone in the neighborhood.
Cara also earned the Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Awards. She is the daughter of Cheryl and Michael Harvey and is a freshman attending Roger Williams University studying marine biology.
Rebecca Lee
Rebecca Lee attends Carmel High School and has been a Girl Scout for 11 years.
She realized some of her community members held misconceptions about recycling, and that this may be a concern nationally and globally (currently 150 million metric tons of plastics in the oceans and other staggering statistics). Understanding the recycling products and process are complicated, she knew that education and instruction to proper plastics recycling must be made easily accessible and understandable to the public to create change. She interned for the Hamilton County Household Hazardous Waste Center and learned details about plastics recycling, then created flyers for the Hamilton County HHWC and coloring pages for school-age children, as well as a website housing recycling resources.
Rebecca also earned the Girl Scout Silver Award. She is the daughter of Julia Lee.
Madeline Misterka
Madeline Misterka attended Carmel High School and was a 13-year Girl Scout.
She noticed that Indiana school curricula cover limited information about government and civics with little explanation on how to get involved in one’s community, and she believes the information that is taught is dusted over and taught with little emphasis on the significance civics education holds in everyday life. Passionate about political journalism, she created an education program of short, understandable videos and activities covering topics about citizenship and civic responsibility for elementary and middle school students and centralized all her resources digitally.
Madeline also earned the Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Awards and a Girl Scouts of Central Indiana scholarship. She is the daughter of Michelle & Matt Misterka and plans to attend Purdue University.
Gloria Sanchez
Gloria Sanchez attends Carmel High School and has been a Girl Scout for 12 years.
Realizing the youth room at her church had many issues and was in dire need of remodeling, she led the space renovation to create a welcoming space for youth to enjoy and build a community. She has been a member of the church her whole life and wanted to leave her mark there.
Gloria also earned the Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Awards and a Girl Scouts of Central Indiana scholarship. She is the daughter of Jenn Stumpp and plans to attend the University of Brighton for Business Management with Finance.
Sneha Vashistha
Sneha Vashistha attended Carmel High School and was a 13-year Girl Scout.
She noticed that, because they grew up in a time when technology was not as prominent or dangerous as it can be today, senior citizens lack the specific training and practice to be safe online and are vulnerable to hackers and scams that can breach privacy. Inspired by her relationship with her grandparents and other older adults, she designed and hosted cyber security awareness workshops specifically for senior citizens, hosting virtual and in-person workshops at community centers and senior homes to reach seniors across the world.
Sneha also earned the Girl Scout Silver Award. She is the daughter of Anil Vashistha and Uma Nagarajan and plans to major in biomedical engineering and pre-med in college.
Samantha Walz
Samantha Walz attended Carmel High School and was a 13-year Girl Scout.
She is passionate about and enjoys STEM and noticed a lack of access to STEM for kids in her neighboring community. She created a cabinet filled with different fun and educational STEM activities to provide kids with access to STEM.
Samantha also earned the Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Awards. She is the daughter of Amy Walz and Matt Walz and plans to attend Purdue University to study engineering.
About the Girl Scout Gold Award
Since 1916, Girl Scouts have been making meaningful, sustainable change in their communities and around the world. The Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor a Girl Scout can earn, acknowledges the power behind each recipient’s dedication to not only empowering and bettering herself, but also to making the world a better place for others. These young women are courageous leaders and visionary change makers. They are the future, and it looks bright!
Learn more at GirlScoutsIndiana.org.