Decorah's Jada Vanden Brink earns highest award in Girl Scouts

Jada Vanden Brink

Luther College student Jada Vanden Brink has earned her gold award, the highest Girl Scout honor available.

Jada noticed members of her local church, Decorah Lutheran, were having difficulty communicating and weren't aware of volunteer opportunities because the church directory was out of date. She created a plan to collect all current member's contact information and created a new and improved directory for everyone in her church to use. Jada also updated the church's website and social media pages to keep members connected.

The gold award is the highest honor in the girl scouts. To earn a gold award the Girl Scout must choose an issue she cares about, investigate everything she can about the issue and invite others to support and take action with her.  The service project needs to reach beyond the Girl Scout organization and provide lasting benefit to the girl's larger community.  Last of all, 80 hours or more needs to be spent working on the project.  Jada began her project in the fall of 2015 and completed it spring of 2016.

Jada is a freshman at Luther College, majoring in athletic training.