Girl Scout Receives recognition for Gold Award Project

Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta recognizes Brooke Pearson for earning her Gold Award which is the highest award that a Girl Scout Senior or Ambassador can earn. Of the 93 Gold Award projects submitted in the 2017 – 2018 Girl Scout year, six scouts were selected for an additional honor. Brooke Pearson’s 2017 Gold Award project, Teen Dating Violence, made an impact in the community and has been selected as a 2018 Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta – Council Young Woman of Distinction. The Council Young Women of Distinction is an awards program honoring Girl Scouts who achieve excellence in community leadership by living out the Girl Scout Promise and Law as they take action to make the world a better place. “Girls have the power to effect real change, and each year, we see Girl Scouts across the country do that by taking measurable actions that improve our world,” said GSUSA CEO Sylvia Acevedo. Brooke is a 13-year Girl Scout of Greater Atlanta and Girl Scouts USA, Lifetime Member. She actively participates in Troop 40029 of the Lanier Service Unit and Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church Girl Scouts Mission Group in Norcross, GA. Brooke will be honored and will receive her award along with other local Atlanta Girl Scout Gold Award recipients on February 25, 2018 at the Girl Scouts of Greater Atlanta annual Girl Award Luncheon.

Brooke Pearson’s Gold Award project consists of two components – community and her high school (Cross Keys in DeKalb County). The community aspect involves working with Partnership Against Domestic Violence (P.A.D.V.) in hosting multiple workshops for teens to discuss appropriate dating behaviors. During the workshop, the attendees also learn self-defense techniques from a Martial Arts instructor. The next workshop will take place on Saturday, February 24, 2018 at Hopewell Missionary Baptist Church from 1:00 – 4:00 pm. Event and registration questions can be sent to gammagammasigma@gmail.com.

The high school aspect of the project involves allowing the student body to have an “orange out” day during Love Is Respect week in which they do not have to wear the school’s uniform. Members of Students Against Destructive Decisions (S.A.D.D.) conduct a social experiment in which members are made up with beaten faces, wear signs containing teen dating statistics and they do not speak the entire day so that the school body has a visual of dating violence. Brooke Pearson has collected 125 items for PADV’s women and children shelters. In addition, she is an inaugural member of PADV’s Teen Advisory Board where she has been a panelist for the annual Teen Summit for PADV as well as a facilitator for adult and teen workshops.