Avon Lake High School Student Earns Girl Scout Gold Award

The Girl Scouts of North East Ohio (GSNEO) recently announced that 14-year-old Avon Lake High School Freshman Elisabeth Lendal has earned her Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can receive. She is also officially the first recipient in Avon Lake to receive this prestigious award (the equivalent of the Boys Scout Eagle Scout Award), and one of the youngest ones as well.

For her Girl Scout Gold Award project, Spices & More!, Elisabeth focused on CRS and its clients. She kick started getting spices by collecting 1,185 spice bottles, she created a cookbook for CRS clients – using commonly donated food items and she informed, via Constant Contact, CRS donors of better food options to donate. She also improved CRS website with a “client page” and finally, she got her French class to make 24 Soup-in-a-Jar to donate for Valentine’s Day to CRS clients. She then reached out to 50 food banks in Ohio, 50 more across the USA and 20 in Canada to offer her cookbook. So far, over 25 food banks across the nation will offer her cookbook to their clients.

This experience had definitely been life changing for our daughter. She has been overwhelmed by how positive the feedback has been from CRS clients and volunteers as well as food banks throughout the country. The support from the community has also been incredible. She has a newfound interest in non-profit work and wants to continue improving lives in the community. Elisabeth has invited anyone from the community that would like to receive her cookbook per email to simply contact her at elielendal.cookbook@gmail.com. Elisabeth’s family are extremely proud of her achievement.

About the Girl Scout Gold Award

The Girl Scout Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn, recognizes a Girl Scout’s commitment to excellence as she develops skills and values to meet present and future challenges in her life. To earn the Girl Scout Gold Award, a Girl Scout Senior or Girl Scout Ambassador must design and carry out a project that fulfills a need within a girl’s community, creates change, and is sustainable. The project must be completed with a suggested minimum of 80 hours of work. Only about 5 percent of eligible girls earn the prestigious Gold Award.