Girl Scouts in the Heart of Pennsylvania is honored to announce Emily Diaz from York County has earned the highest award in Girl Scouting, the Girl Scout Gold Award, for the 2023 Gold Award class.

Diaz’s project, “Crocheting for the Children,” focused on bringing community members together to help children in need. Diaz established a group to teach community members how to crochet to make blankets for donation. She brought 14 volunteers together to crochet squares which were then sewn together to make five blankets that were donated to a local agency. She partnered with Project Linus to complete the project. Her project’s mission will continue through Project Linus’ Facebook group which shared the project and provided an email address for community members to contact to learn more and get involved.

Diaz devoted a minimum of 80 hours to problem-solve, plan and implement her ideas for change. The impact of her Gold Award project will be felt long into the future, and Diaz has shown the next generation of girls what they are capable of accomplishing.

The Gold Award is the highest achievement a Girl Scout can earn, available to girls in high school who create sustainable change for a community or world issue. Gold Award Girl Scouts address pressing issues in their communities and create sustainable change to make the world a better place.

The Gold Award process not only enables girls to help their communities, but also provides tangible benefits as they grow as individuals. By going Gold, girls build professional skills, earn scholarships, build their network, and for those interested in serving their country, are able to enlist at a higher pay grade when they join the military.