Published: October 10, 2008 03:06 pm            

Girl Scout - Madison Pirkey

Cullman’s own Madison Pirkey has the distinction of receiving the highest honor in girl scouts and that’s much more than just cookies.

“We are absolutely more than cookies,” troop leader Tiffany Whitesell said. “But the cookie sales help provide money to do other projects.”

Pirkey was awarded the Girl Scouts of America Gold Award during a recent ceremony.

Pirkey has unofficially been a girl scout since age four, when her mother was a troop leader. Officially she has been a member of Troop 1150, under leader Whitesell for the past six years.

Whitesell has been involved with boy and girl scouts for the past nine years.

“It is wonderful,” Whitesell said. “Scouting has an emphasis on building leaders for tomorrow and is a confidence builder. Scouting focuses on leadership, scholastic achievements, patriotism, and makes the members honorable contributors to our society.”

During her time as a scout, Madison has been involved in many activities. Some of her main activities include, being a patrol leader at daycamp for the past three years, helping with the Friendship Festival for the past two years and assisting her troop leader with the younger members of the group.

“I like the leadership and helping the little ones on fun things and seeing them happy,” said Madison.

Madison has helped with the boy scout troop during their fundraising efforts at the annual Oktoberfest for the past five years.

She has played soccer for the American Youth Soccer Organization (AYSO) for 11 years and also been a volunteer referee.

“We get to go on lots of trip,” Madison said. “My favorite was Savannah, Ga., cause we got to go to the beach.”

The Girl Scouts of America is an organization dedicated to building girls character and skills for success in the world. According to the Girls Scouts official website, scouts develop qualities that will serve them for the rest of their lives, such as leadership, strong values, social conscience and conviction about their own potential and self-worth.

“Girl Scouts exposes girls to different industries to let them see different careers,” Madison’s father Jeff said.

Only 6% of girls receive the gold award worldwide, according to Jeff.

“I am proud of her accomplishments and her willingness to help the community,” said her mother Connie.

“I want to give credit to my troop leader Whitesell. She has a great commitment for the girls in our group,” Madison said.

Whitesell also commended Madison on her hard work.

“Madison is a hard worker who has put in hours of work and dedication,” Whitesell said.

For the Gold Award, a girl must complete a community enrichment project that will be on-going and it must be approved by the board. Madison chose to assist AYSO install a flag pole and plant a memory garden at the soccer fields at Heritage Park. Madison was able to bring civic, private and government organizations together to make this dream a reality.

“She worked with the park officials on this project,” Whitesell said. “It was personal for her since she has been involved with AYSO for so many years.”

“She has a passion for helping in her community, but doesn’t want accolades,” her father said.

“Scouts instill self-confidence in a world that focuses on just looks,” Whitesell said.

Nationally numbers for girl scouts have been down. But Whitesell says her numbers have remained steady. There is so much to compete with, she said.

“We are a flexible combined troop. Girls can stay in our group from kindergarten through high school. Last year we had about 30 members,” Whitesell said.

Many groups cater only to certain ages, and then the girls must go to another group for the next level.

“Girl scouts are diverse, and it gives you the framework to do whatever you want to do,” Whitesell said.  

And for the record, Samoas are Madison’s favorite cookie.



Girl Scouts Facts:



Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.



The national headquarters is in New York City, with over 400 hundred employees.



There are more than 300 local Girl Scout councils, 236,000 troops and 986,000 adult volunteers.



Girls Scouts was chartered by Congress in 1950.



Through membership in the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts, GAUSS is part of a worldwide family of 10 million girls and adults in 145 countries.



Girl Scouts was founded in 1912 by Juliette Gorton Low, in Savannah, Georgia, with 18 members.



There are now more than 3.7 million members throughout the US and in more than 90 countries.

        

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