Girl Scout Morgan Meyer of Becker was recently awarded the Gold Award for her cystic fibrosis project she started in 2016.

The Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout can earn, encompassing sustainability, community involvement, leadership, and lots of time and dedication.  Moving forward, the Gold Award can offer multiple scholarships and assist in college and job applications.

To receive the award, Morgan created a power point presentation to present in front of the Girl Scout council members. She also had to submit a time log of her nearly 90 hours of work toward this project and write a final report identifying how she’s helped improve her community, what she’s done to make a difference, how her project will be sustained and what she’s learned throughout this project.  

 

“The Girl Scout council was more than happy to award me with the Gold Award, saying that it was a ‘true Gold Award’, Morgan said with great enthusiasm. “The COO of Girl Scouts was blown away with my oral presentation and the binder I created with my original copies of information.” 

 

“She said she planned to use a quote of mine that I wrote in my final report,” Said Meyer.

 

Her quote was: “Success isn't given to you —you have to work for it and be flexible in the process, but rigid with the results.” 

 

Morgan’s first step towards her goal was when she got approval in March of 2016 to began her project entitled,  Step-by-Step: Recognizing CF.  She held her first event, a walk for cystic fibrosis, May 20 of that year.  

 

“This was a great success as we had a great turnout,” she said. “Lots of opportunities to educate the community about Cystic Fibrosis, and Tracy and Mark Bertram as well as Karen and Richard Schmidt spoke at the event, helping us creating a stronger community support system.”

 

The Bertrams had a daughter,  Brianna, who passed away from CF and was a teammate with Meyer on the Dazzlers dance team. She was also the inspiration for Meyer’s project.

 

In November, Morgan held her first annual ornament decorating for the Remembrance Tree during the tree lighting at the BCC. 

 

“This event is now a tradition that will help community members remember their loved ones who have passed away too soon,” Morgan said. “It’s inspired by the CF children who often pass away early in life and there is a plaque that will remain up on the wall identifying the tree and my Gold Award.”

 

The final step of her project was when she started a support group that is run by those who have been personally affected by CF. This group meets about once a month and Morgan’s project adviser (Tracy Bertram) helps to ensure these meetings continue.  

 

“I am beyond excited to have finally achieved this award that I have been working toward earning for the past year,” said Meyer.  “I am thankful to have had the opportunity to make a difference in this community and I hope the community can appreciate my efforts to create more awareness about Cystic Fibrosis and to create a stronger community support system.”  

 

For more information on the Gold Award and Morgan’s project, check out the Girl Scout Gold Award web page at: www.girlscouts.org/en/our-program/highest-awards/gold-award.html.

 

“I am so fortunate to have a community that is so willing to participate in others efforts to create change,” she says.