Joplin teen earns Girl Scouts Gold Award
Features . The Joplin Globe
Sara Danner holds one of the certificates she received as one of the newest recipients of the Girl Scouts Gold Award. Photo by Kaylea M. Hutson-Miller
By Kaylea M. Hutson-Miller
Academics, sports and arts — Sara Danner has earned achievements in multiple areas of her life.
Set aside those honors, and Danner will say her greatest achievement to date is earning the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor awarded by the Girl Scouts.
Since 1916, Girl Scouts have earned the award as a mark indicating they have not only empowered and bettered themselves but also made the world a better place.
Danner was one of 14 young women within the Girl Scouts of the Missouri Heartland to be recognized during a ceremony on June 1.
For her project, Danner focused on creating a multisided sensory board for special education students at Joplin North Middle School.
The board, filled with items ranging from a wall phone, clock, door hinges, magnets and dry erase board, is designed to provide sensory toys to help calm students.
Danner, 17, said she focused on this area for her project after learning about the need from her adviser, Melissa Shrimplin.
“I noticed there were not a lot of things (for the students),” the Joplin High School senior said. “So I wanted to make a change.”
Danner said each item on the board is designed to encourage positive interaction with the students.
“When people get anxious, it’s good for them to have something to do,” Danner said. “It also helps special education students learn about movements.”
In addition to the sensory board, Danner also provided weighted lap blankets for Will’s Place, which provides comprehensive behavioral health services to youths from birth through age 25.
Learning from Girl Scouts
Danner joined Girl Scouts as a kindergartner at Jefferson Elementary School, but the program stopped at the end of the year.
Her mother, Jennifer, was best friends with another troop leader, Jamie Dworaczyk. The friendship led to Danner joining Dworaczyk’s troop.
Sara Danner jokes Girl Scouts provided her mom a way to hang out with her best friend.
Jennifer Danner said the program gave her three daughters, including Sara, a place to build friendships and knowledge. Her oldest, Kaitlyn, is a lifetime member of the organization, while Lauren, 15, is on track to complete her Silver Award.
“I love that Girl Scouts are accepting toward everyone,” Jennifer said. “It encourages girls to learn things they might not get a chance to do.”
Girl Scouts has provided Sara with a way to travel. She’s attended conferences in other states, as well as venturing outside of the country.
Last year, the family traveled together with the troop to Costa Rica for a senior Girl Scout trip.
“Costa Rica was different but really beautiful,” she said, adding it was a mixture of educational experiences and fun outings.
The troop toured a coffee plantation and visited the rainforest as part of the 10-day excursion.
After Dworaczyk’s troop retired following the trip, Danner and her sister joined a troop run by Brett Meeker. In 2022, the family hopes to travel with the troop to Greece and Italy.
“Girl Scouts has taught me to be myself,” Sara said. “I can really do anything I put my mind to. It’s also taught me if you think you can do it, you can. It gave me the mindset that I know I can do it.”
A favorite memory
One of Sara’s favorite Girl Scouting memories revolves around a scouting work day at the National Park in Fort Scott, Kansas.
She jokes the Boy Scouts were given the task to paint a wagon while the Girl Scouts were asked to plant trees.
“It was just fun with all of us working together,” Sara said. “It was a lot of hard work.”
Sara likes the focus Girl Scouts place on science, technology, engineering and math programs.
Recently, she completed a program that taught her how to code using a computer.
“It was a fun process, and I probably would have never done it without Girl Scouts,” Sara said. “Sometimes as we earn the patches and badges, we learn how to do stuff we would never do.”
This story appeared in the Sunday, June 30, 2019 issue of The Joplin Globe. http://bit.ly/GlobeGoldAward