GSCB Girl Scout receives National Recognition for Busy Board Project
Each year, Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay is honored to recognize it's exceptional Gold Award Girl Scouts. The council’s charter organization, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA), has awarded one of those Class of 2025 Gold Award recipients, Mia Peacock of Dover, Delaware, a $5,000 national scholarship for her outstanding community-based project, Busy Board for Children with Disabilities.
Mia, a 2024 graduate of Early College High School at Delaware State University planned, created, and shared 3 sensory boards for 5 different local organizations: Dover Public Library, Kent County Public Library, Grace Presbyterian Church, Delaware State University Lab School, and Embrace Delaware. At each of these locations, the busy boards are designed to support children with intellectual disabilities and their families during periods of high stress or overstimulation. When she began her Gold Award project, Mia saw a lack of knowledge about the needs of children with disabilities as well as an unwillingness to learn within her community.
Mia writes, "I babysit a developing adolescent with autism who becomes extremely overstimulated when he is near screens. When it's time to put screens away, he can become hostile toward the authority figures in his life. After seeing this, I wanted to find a solution that would benefit him and those around him. Building a sensory board may help children with autism and Down syndrome manage their emotions in public." The goal of her Gold Award project was to address the lack of support and/or accomodation for children with autism and other disabilities in public spaces. Her hope was for the sensory boards to allow families with children with autism and Down syndrome to feel more comfortable going out knowing there are spaces in which someone cares about the comfort and wellbeing of their child.
In addition to designing and constructing, Mia created a video about how to make a sensory board, as well as their benefits and uses, for others to replicate her project elswhere. She did several observations at the different sites to better learn how the children interacted with the sensory boards and how they could be improved. She also provided families with a feedback survey and applied their ideas.
Mia is among a group of Gold Award Girl Scouts from across the U.S. receiving national scholarships. She was selected because her project exemplifies the core components of the Gold Award and demonstrates extraordinary leadership to drive lasting change in her community and beyond.
This year’s class of world-changers raised millions in funding and invested over 300,000 hours to address real-life problems such as environmental sustainability, racial justice, mental and physical wellness, and gender inequality in STEM. Gold Award Girl Scouts demonstrate the breadth of issues American teens feel are most prevalent in society today.
To earn the Girl Scout Gold Award, Mia completed more than 80 hours of work and seven steps which include:
- Identifying an issue in her community
- Investigating the issue thoroughly
- Building a team to support her efforts
- Creating a plan to take action
- Presenting the plan and gathering feedback
- Taking action by leading a team to carry out the plan
- Educating and inspiring
Gold Award Girl Scouts become innovative problem-solvers, empathetic leaders, confident public speakers, and focused project managers. They learn resourcefulness, tenacity, and decision-making skills, giving them an edge personally and professionally. As they take action to transform their communities, Gold Award Girl Scouts gain tangible skills and prove they’re the leaders our world needs.
When asked about the impact her Gold Award Journey had on her, Mia had this to say about how pursuing the award prepared her for the future: "In addition to building resilience, self-confidence, and experiencing the collective community impact, I gained valuable knowledge and skills which can all help in my future endeavors of going to college and becoming an airport director or manager. Aviation is a very busy, collaborative, social, community service industry. I have developed my initiative skills, communication skills, adaptability skills, collaboration skills, management skills, and delegation skills. All of these skills will be invaluable to me as I manage and oversee airport operations on a daily basis."
According to recent research, Gold Award Girl Scouts are more likely to fill leadership roles at work and in their personal lives and are more civically engaged than their non-Girl Scout peers. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Gold Award Girl Scouts agree that earning their Gold Award gave them skills that help them succeed professionally. Seventy-two percent (72%) said earning their Gold Award helped them get a scholarship. Changing the world doesn’t end when a Girl Scout earns her Gold Award. Ninety-nine percent (99%) of Gold Award Girl Scout alums take on leadership roles in their everyday lives.
Pictured: Busy Board setup at Dover Public Library
Pictured: Busy Board at Kent County Public Library
Pictured: Mia and her car wash team raising funds for the construction of the Busy Boards
Pictured: Mia and her car wash team raising funds for the construction of the Busy Boards
