Girl Scout Troop 14567 in Tucker is small but mighty. Starting with a troop of about twenty as Daisy Scouts in Kindergarten, the remaining three girls – Gnouma, Leslie, and Lily – are now rising high school sophomores here in Tucker. They recently earned their Silver Award—the second highest award for the Girl Scouts of the USA—and were named as “2023 Silver Award Women of Distinction” by the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta for excellence in community leadership for their outstanding project. Only four troops were honored in Greater Atlanta. Troop 14567 was the only troop honored in Dekalb County. They are now going for the Gold Award, continuing to give back to their community and support their peers.
For their Silver Award, they had the idea that girls of their own age need knowledge about public health issues in easily accessible ways that they can then use to protect and empower themselves. They collaborated with the CDC Museum to create a brand new public health patch and website, working through the summer and early fall. The Girl Scout Public Health Patch website is made up of learning modules written by the girls but based on CDC resources. It has a quiz that you can take to earn the patch.
The three girls chose to write about six topics that really hit home to them: bullying, mental health, sexual health, respiratory health, emergency response, and diet / exercise. “If the three of us can make a difference and literally work with the government to teach people about public health, then other troops can create change too,” said the girls.
In addition, the troop has started to volunteer at Trinity House through Tucker First United Methodist Church. Trinity House is a residential program in downtown Atlanta for homeless men that helps them reclaim their lives and return to their families and communities as mentors and leaders. The girls have dinner with the men to hear their stories and share their own as a way of showing that the community cares and learning first-hand about some of life’s challenges.
Besides this, the girls are busy looking forward to time away from school, getting summer jobs, and working on their Gold awards. They love living in Tucker with its great sense of community. They have and continue to earn the distinction of Citizen of the Month.
Nomination by Tom Crick
