2020 CitrusPeel Gold Edition

National Young Women of Distinction
These three young women have been nominated for the National Gold Award Girl Scout
recognition, which honors Gold Award projects that demonstrate significant sustainable
impact, astonishing leadership, and tackle a local challenge related to a national issue.
Through their Gold Award projects, these young women have exhibited the essence of what
Girl Scouting is all about. Whether it be demonstrating perseverance or working with the
local community to further their cause, these Gold Award Girl Scouts have changed their
community and the world for the better.
GRACE BENEKE
The Book Worm
Grace overcame her innate shyness to address
the critical lack of funding in public elementary
schools, specifically Title I schools, which have
large concentrations of students from lowincome
families. Recognized as a national and
global issue, low-income students lack access
to rich reading resources which leads to low
reading levels. Many of these students’ families
are homeless, leaving students with no access to
books at home.
Grace’s project, The Book Worm, began with
educating community partners about the need
for the collection of gently used books and
training volunteers to read to kids while ensuring
comprehension and engagement. After collecting
5,000 books for Killarney Elementary School and
recruiting volunteers from the local library’s Teen
Advisory Board, Grace created a book catalogue.
She then led the creation of mini-libraries in 26
classrooms and Little Libraries across campus.
Children are given two free books to take home
over summer and winter breaks so they can
continue to enjoy literary journeys.
The project quickly proved successful as the
school library’s media specialist reported that
more children were excited about the variety of
book series available to them. The library was
now able to meet demand for the more popular
titles. Teachers noticed an increase in the
number of students reading, especially where
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