(Le Mars) –The highest award you can receive as a Girl Scout is the Gold Award, and not that many girls get it. Faith Laskie did.
Faith, the daughter of Pete and Tina Laskie (pictured above), graduated last year from Le Mars Community High School, and throughout that busy senior year, she started a project that came out of a need she saw after talking to her middle school aged brother. This project allowed her leadership, organizational and networking skills shine, and checked all the boxes of a project that fulfills what it takes to win the Gold Award from the Girls Scouts of Greater Iowa.
What she found out from her brother Quinn is that he had a lot of Study Halls built into his day. Faith says she decided that a book club would be a perfect way to open up an opportunity for further learning, and engagement with the middle school students.
The first semester she offered the Book Club she had about 20 students actively participate and they read a handful books.
She continued into second semester, with similar success, even though she had done what she needed already to submit what was required for the award. Clearly, facilitating the programs and connecting with these kids was Faith’s number one concern, not the accolades she was submitting the paperwork for.
Now that Faith has graduated and started her college education at Morningside, she said her National Honors Society advisor, Mrs. Jill Brown (pictured below with Faith), is keeping an eye out to see whose capable hands she could employ to keep the middle school book club going.
Faith Laskie is studying Elementary Education at Morningside, where she’s pictured above. She said this experience helped her gain insight on what it’s like to lead a group of kids.
All-in-all Faith spent about 85 hours in creating, preparing and instituting the book club for Middle School students. For sustainability, she also created itineraries and example questions for the books to help the next person lead.
The Gold Award is given to fewer than 6% of Girl Scouts annually. Congratulations on earning such a rare honor, Miss Faith!
