Beals earns Girl Scout Silver Award

Laura Beals
By Joseph Cyr
Staff Writer
    LITTLETON — A longtime Girl Scout from Littleton has earned one of scouting’s highest honors.
    Laura Beals was presented with the prestigious Girl Scout Silver Award at a special ceremony held at Kennebec Valley Community College in Fairfield on June 16. The Silver Award is the second highest award in scouting, surpassed only by the Gold Award.
    “Going for the Girl Scout Silver Award — the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette can earn — required that Laura spend a minimum of 50 hours exploring her community, identifying issues, making a plan and putting it into motion,” said Joan McDonald, CEO, Girl Scouts of Maine. “Laura’s Take Action project gave her the chance to show that she is a leader who is organized, determined, and dedicated to improving her community.”
    A Girl Scout for seven years, Beals is a member of Troop 1487. She is the daughter of David and Charlene Beals and a student at Houlton High School.
    For her Silver Award project, Beals developed an educational program titled, Bullying Awareness. Aimed at middle school students, the program created awareness of what bullying is and offered coping strategies for dealing with the problem. 
    “Once I identified an issue I began to develop a project,” Beals said. “As a member of the civil rights team in school I thought bullying awareness needed to begin earlier than junior high and continue through high school.”
    Her project included a series of activities for younger students to make them aware of the differences in everyone and to respect those differences. 
    “The activities are more hands-on than lecturing,” she explained. “I feel the activities will be more meaningful and resonate more than a group discussion.”
    Girl Scouts of America has three earned awards — Bronze, Silver and Gold. The Bronze award is for the Junior level, the Silver award is for the Cadette level, and Gold award is for the Senior and Ambassador level. Each level has more requirements to earn the award. Girl Scouts do not have to earn all or any of these awards.
    Beals earned the Bronze Award when she was in the fifth grade. She completed the requirements for the Silver Award at the end of her eighth grade year and has now set her sights on the Gold award.
    Girl Scouts of Maine provides services and support to over 16,000 girl and adult members statewide. For information on membership, programs, and volunteer opportunities, contact Girl Scouts of Maine at 1-888-922-4763 or visit:  www.girl scoutsofmaine.org.