News

Raines, Palmer earn Girl Scouts' highest achievement

Berit Raines and Emma Grace Palmer earned Girl Scout Gold Awards.

By Lightning Reports, Published: March 26, 2023

Two Girl Scouts from Henderson County, Emma Grace Palmer and Berit Raines, have earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest achievement a Girl Scout can earn.

Girls in high school are able to earn their Girl Scout Gold Award by creating sustainable change on a community or world issue. Gold Award Girl Scouts address the root cause of a problem, plan and implement innovative solutions to drive change and lead a team of people to success. Each girl must dedicate a minimum of 80 hours to planning and carrying out her project, which must benefit the community and have long lasting impact.

Palmer, the daughter of James and Carrie Palmer and a member of Girl Scout Troop 2997, created her project around children and youth ages 5-17 who recently had a parent diagnosed with cancer. By creating a workbook and website, she addressed knowledge gaps and the misconceptions about cancer, as well as provided mental health exercises for children going through health issues with their families.

For her Gold Award project, Raines, the daughter of Travis Berning and Courtney Raines and a member of Girl Scout Troop 1901, addressed the lack of hands-on STEM activities for elementary school students. She made pre-packaged science labs to help teachers develop more engaging projects in the classroom and created materials educators can use globally.