Special to IFN
Alexandra Stansberry of Girl Scout Troop 2781 in Iredell County has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award for a community leadership and service project that addresses education for first-time voters on how to register and what is needed to vote locally.
Aiming to fill the gap in resources to help people to vote in a non-partisan way, the Girl Scout ambassador partnered with various community organizations for her Gold Award project, “Registration Ready: Spreading the Word about Voter Registration,” to inform local high school and community college students on the importance of this civic duty and connect them with resources to complete the voter registration process.
“There are a lot of people that are not voting, and this lack of participation hurts both those who vote and those who don’t as it causes elected officials to not be representative of the young people in their districts,” said Stansberry, a Girl Scout of 13 years. “Elected officials are less likely to focus on issues that are important to young people because they aren’t participating in the process as much.”
Stansberry reached over 350 students through various methods like educational presentations at local high schools and informational voter registration tables at Crossroads Arts and Science Early College and Mitchell Community College. She also created a website to help all first-time voters learn what they need to do to vote that will continue to inform her community both now and in future years.
Girls in high school can earn the Girl Scout Gold Award by creating sustainable change on a community or world issue. They 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 Scout must dedicate a minimum of 80 hours to planning and carrying out their project that benefits the community and has a long-lasting impact.
Gold Award Girl Scouts gain tangible skills and prove they are the leaders our community and world need, and those from the Girl Scouts Carolinas Peaks to Piedmont (GSCP2P) council have created community gardens, addressed issues in foster care, combated bullying in schools and so much more.
This Gold Award is sustained past Stansberry’s involvement as her community partners will continue to utilize her resources during upcoming election seasons and her peers will keep sharing what they’ve learned.
“My target audience not only learned about registering to vote but how to make their own plans to vote in their local elections and what they need to do to make that happen. If asked by someone else if they were going to vote, they would be able to tell people not only that they voted, but how they voted and what they need to bring with them,” Stansberry said.
Thousands of Girl Scouts across the country earn the Girl Scout Gold Award each year, which first began in 1916 as the Golden Eaglet. Earning the Gold Award opens doors to scholarships, preferred admission tracks for college and amazing career opportunities. In 2024, 40 GSCP2P Girl Scouts earned their Gold Award.
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For more information about local Girl Scouting and community service projects like earning a Girl Scout Gold Award, visit www.girlscoutsp2p.org.