Two girls in Girl Scout Troop 41047, who are graduating seniors at MIHS, are Girl Scout Gold Award recipients. Briauna Azer and Jean Nishida have earned the Gold Award and were honored at the governor’s mansion by Gov. Christine Gregoire on June 7.

Azer’s scout project was to design and lead a two-day event where 12 participants volunteered at three local nonprofit organizations. Her mentor was the youth pastor at Mercer Island Covenant Church. Nishida’s project was to create a DVD on composting, develop and deliver an interactive composting lesson using the DVD to 90 third-graders. Nishida’s mentor was a fifth-grade teacher at West Mercer Elementary School.

The Gold Award is the highest award given by The Girl Scouts of America and is earned by only 1 percent of Girl Scouts. Many prerequisites are required before launching on the Gold Award Project, an 80-hour community service project that requires pre-approval by the Gold Award Board of the Girl Scouts of Western Washington (GSWW) before work can commence. The project must be measurable, sustainable and serve an organization outside of Girl Scouts. It requires the scout to locate a mentor who is not a leader or a parent.