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Photos courtesy of Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama.
Grace Richardson, a graduate of Hoover High School and student at the University of South Alabama, earned the Girl Scouts Gold Award, the highest recognition in the organization.
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Photos courtesy of Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama.
Jaye Conn, a member of The Altamont School class of 2021, earned the Girl Scouts Gold Award, the highest recognition in the organization.
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Photos courtesy of Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama.
Maria Timberlake, a member of the Hoover High School Class of 2020, earned the Girl Scouts Gold Award, the highest recognition in the organization.
Three teens from Hoover in recent months have earned the Girls Scouts Gold Award, the highest achievement in the organization.
The girls are:
► Grace Richardson, a student at the University of South Alabama
► Maria Timberlake, a 2020 graduate of Hoover High School
► Jaye Conn, an incoming senior at The Altamont School
Richardson earned her Gold Award with the completion of an artistic environmental project called Project Aquarius.
She sought to raise awareness about the importance of ocean conservation and to educate people about how they can reduce their environmental impact on the ocean. She created works of art that portrayed ocean creatures and the current state of their habitat and then displayed them on a website, sites.google.com/view/project-aquarius.
She also shared tips on the website on how people can help with ocean conservation and planned to donate a piece of her art to the Dauphin Island Sea Lab.
“The ocean connects everyone on the planet, and it’s very important for everyone to respect it and try to reduce our personal effect on it,” Richardson said, “Big change can happen if we all do our best to be mindful stewards of our planet.”
Timberlake’s project was to create a consignment closet for choir uniforms at her school after noticing that some students at Hoover High did not join choir because they were unable to purchase the required uniforms.
Former and current students donated their used uniforms, and they were stored in customized cabinets built by Birmingham Door Works. Students now can rent a uniform for an affordable price.
“Student financial inequality is not only a local problem, but also a national issue found in high schools all over the United States,” Timberlake said. “With my choir consignment program, I hope that I can inspire other schools to figure out their own solutions to issues and provide equal opportunities to all students.”
Conn completed a project designed to educate people how to create successful robotics teams. She created a YouTube channel called The FLL (First Lego League) Mentor, which provides tips, tricks and advice for establishing a team.
She hopes the channel will inspire more people to pursue robotics.
“I love that competing in FLL offers so many benefits, like teamwork,” Conn said. “The values of FLL are similar to Girl Scouts: teamwork, problem-solving and fun.”
Submitted by Girls Scouts of North-Central Alabama.
