By Jessica Battisti
Herald Intern
Two Central Florida Girl Scouts are tackling community issues through their Gold Award projects, creating a sports program for at-risk youth and an LGBTQIA+ resource hub across six counties.
High school seniors Tatiana Torres of Oviedo and Carina Cook of Kissimmee are both members of Girl Scout Troop 1276 in Oviedo. The duo began their projects for the Girl Scouts’ Gold Award — an 80-hour, solution-based community project and the highest honor given to Girl Scouts.
Torres, who has played soccer since she was 6, began the sports program at the Boys Town Intake Center in Oviedo. The project includes a newly renovated, donation-based sports closet, a soccer playbook, and volunteer-coached drills and annual games.
Cook, who identifies as gender-fluid, launched www.gsrainbowresources.com — a website that includes resources divided by each county served by the Girl Scouts of Citrus Council: Brevard, Lake, Orange, Osceola, Seminole and Volusia. The site also features poems, art and messages from other Girl Scouts and community members.
Gold Award projects must address a root issue with a national or global link, demonstrate the Girl Scout’s leadership skills, and have a sustainable and measurable impact, according to the official Gold Award guide.
Troop leader Lorie Massey said the Gold Award doesn’t get as much recognition as the Boy Scouts’ Eagle Award despite its near equivalency and additional requirements.
“I think it’s harder because it has to be sustainable,” Massey said. “Gold Award projects have to be global and it has to carry on after you’re done with it. Everybody talks about how hard the Eagle is, but I'm like, ‘You have no idea how much harder girls have to work.’”
Torres said she got the idea to begin the sports program after discussing potential project ideas with Massey.
“We had thrown around a couple of ideas, but soccer just seemed to stick and was more meaningful,” Torres said. “And then I heard about Angie, a girl in my troop last year, and how she had done a game room at Boys Town. My troop leader mentioned how they don’t really have a sports program there.”
Torres’ project is the fourth in collaboration with Troop 1276 and Boys Town, a nonprofit child and family care organization that specializes in helping victims of child abuse and neglect.
“Establishing the soccer program will give the kids something to do and team building,” Massey said. “Having all those things there might be a nice addition.”
Torres said that after being injured at a high school soccer game in January, the project has become increasingly personal during her recovery.
“I know young individuals at Boys Town might not have something physically broken, but may have some mental challenges they’re facing,” Torres said. “To be able to play sports can teach them valuable life skills such as teamwork, discipline and perseverance. It can also help build up their confidence.”
Cook, on the other hand, said she always knew she wanted her Gold Award project to revolve around the LGBTQIA+ community.
“I’m an LGBTQ Girl Scout myself, and I was in a place where I had support, but it was still kind of a hard time for me,” Cook said. “I found resources that helped me, and I want to be able to help Girl Scouts like me who might need those resources too.”
To sustain the site after graduation, Cook included a section where community members can volunteer to keep it running and update resources over time.
“It’s to show queer Girl Scouts that, ‘Hey, people understand you — people know what you’ve gone through, and you’re not alone,’” Cook said.
Cook said one of her main concerns was that the project wouldn’t be approved because of its subject and the sustainability requirements.
“I’m worried that slowly some of these resources might shut down,” Cook said. “Hopefully they don’t, but Orlando and Lake used to be full of LGBTQ groups and clubs, and slowly — Lake especially — has kind of dwindled down.”
Massey, a former Girl Scout and mother of a Gold Award recipient, has lived in Oviedo for the past 40 years. Growing up in the area and watching its expansion has made community-building the core of her role as troop leader.
“That sense of community has always been instilled in me, and then I instilled that in my daughter, and then we instill that in our girls as well — giving back to the community,” Massey said.
Cook, who aspires to be a music therapist, and Torres, who plans to become a physical therapist, both hope to apply the skills they’ve built through their projects in their careers after graduation.
“I’ve always wanted to be able to help people and give people resources,” Cook said. “I think that this really works with my want to help people in the future.”
Massey said she hopes people begin to recognize that Girl Scouts are about more than just cookies.
“They have great things to do in the world,” Massey said. “It’s not just little girls who sell cookies — our Girl Scouts, the big Girl Scouts, grow up and they do big things.”
