Glen Rock April 11, 2012 THE VILLADOM TIMES II • Page 7 Glen Rock High School senior Rebecca Rausch recently earned her Girl Scout Gold Award. Her service project benefitted the First Reformed Church in Midland Park. The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can earn and requires the completion of a leadership project of at least 80 hours. Each girl must discover an issue in the community, connect with experts and community members, and take action to effect positive change. The project should both reflect the girl’s passions and interests and fulfill a need in her community. Rausch refurbished four Sunday school and youth rooms at First Reformed Church. She cleaned each space and repainted the walls, including a mural she designed in each room. “My church has been a big part of my life and I have been going there all my life,” Rausch said. “I saw this project as a way to give back to a church that has given me so much.” Rausch earns Gold Award for project at First Reformed The award-winner recruited the children at First Reformed Church to make crafts to decorate each room so they would feel connected to the new space and be part of the project. She said she learned a lot from completing the renovations. “A big thing I learned was patience,” she said. “The murals took a long time and it was a very slow process. I also learned how to plan and execute a big project.” Rausch has been a Girl Scout since first grade and said the experience has been invaluable in developing her character. “Girl Scouts taught me to be sensitive of the needs of others,” she said. “Through a lot of community service, I met many people of different backgrounds and learned that the needs of the communities around us are great.” This fall, Rausch will begin her study of psychology at High Point University in North Carolina. She plans to counsel at-risk teens in the future. At Glen Rock High School, she is a member of the cheerleading squad, track and field team, Madrigals, and women’s choir. She is the manager of the ice hockey team and helps coach cheerleading. She attends youth group at her church. The Girl Scout Gold Award combines leadership development, career exploration, and community service. Within Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey, 12 percent of eligible girls earn the Girl Scout Gold Award, compared to the national average of six percent. Girl Scouts is the premier leadership development program for girls. In Girl Scouts, girls discover themselves, connect with others, and take action to create positive change in their own communities. Girl Scouts of Northern New Jersey serves 20.5 percent of girls ages five through 17 in 160 municipalities including all of Bergen, Morris, Passaic, and Sussex counties and the half of Warren County. Rebecca Rausch