The Girl Scout Gold Award is awarded to less than 6% of girl scouts every year. Girlscouts.org states, “[Girls] who earn the Gold Award tackle issues that are dear to them and drive lasting change in their communities and beyond. Think of the Gold Award as a key that can open doors to scholarships, preferred admission tracks for college and amazing career opportunities.” Chloe Blumanthal, a local Girl Scout, and an Alliance High School junior, is working to earn this prestigious award.

The awards leading up to the Gold Award, which can be earned by a girl scout attending high school, include the Bronze and Silver Awards. The Bronze award, intended for fourth and fifth graders, is obtained by completing their project with 20 hours of community service. This award can be done with a group of girls. The Silver Award can be earned by girls in sixth through eighth grade completing 50 hours of community service. The Gold Award is the only one of three awards that has to be done independently.

Blumanthal explained, “I have my Bronze and Silver award but I wanted to go for my Gold because my mom has always encouraged me to get all three and not many girls do it so I wanted to be one of the ones that do.” The Bronze and Silver Awards are the awards that a Girl Scout can earn before they are old enough to begin working on a Gold Award project. She went on to say, “Your Gold Award has to be 80 hours of community service and it has to be sustainable, so it has to keep going after you’re done with it.”

Blumanthal remarked, “I’m putting on a mental health conference. It is called Be Kind to Your Mind. There are many different health care providers coming and we’re going to have a ton of different booths about their profession, what they do and different aspects of mental health. There will be things like art therapy, yoga, meditation and essential oils- all kinds of activities.” This event would have taken place on April 18 from 1-4 at Newberry’s, but due to COVID-19, it has been postponed.

The booths at this event will include garden therapy, vision boards, art therapy, wax hand dipping, journaling, yoga, meditation, healthy eating and essential oils. There will also be representatives from FARM camp, a camp for those interested in studying mental health; CSC, who will be talking about scholarships; East Point Horspice; Hope Squad, QPR and the Out of the Darkness Walk. A photobooth and popcorn booth will also be available, among other various booths.

Blumanthal said what inspired her to do this was losing her uncle. She explained, “I lost my uncle two years ago to suicide and after that, I started realizing how bad it was and how much of a problem it is, as well as how many people struggle with it. Being in high school and seeing everything and all the people who struggle with it I wanted to make a resource for them so that they could feel that they could get help easier.” 

Blumanthal has acquired many resources as well as sources to aid her in this process. She remarked, “my mentor is Shanna Rosentrater and she is a counselor here in Alliance. She has helped me a lot and got me connected with a lot of people that I didn’t really know about before I started this project.” She went on to say that her mom has also helped her a lot. Other sponsors include Box Butte General Hospital; Newberry’s, which is sponsoring the building; target, with funds; the Movie Theater provided popcorn bags as well as money for those who needed financial aid coming to the event; and Big Red Nebraska Popcorn is supplying the popcorn for the popcorn bar.

Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN) awarded Blumanthal with an almost $3,000 grant which helped her pay for a lot of this program. Blumanthal had to apply for the grant, explaining what she was doing, why she was doing it, and the budget for the event. The budget totaled to around $2,800, and Blumanthal was awarded it in full.

This project has been a long and extensive process. Blumanthal began brainstorming this project around October of 2018. A few months after that her advisor gave her the form for the BHECN award. When Blumanthal was presented with the information for the grant, it was due in three days. She had to first get her gold award approved before being able to apply for this. Blumanthal stated, “I did all of my Gold Award paperwork and wrote a grant all of that week.” She said, “The paperwork is very extensive. The interview is done on a video call with a bunch of other people around the United States who have earned the Gold Award. They are the ones who approve it and make sure you are doing all the aspects of it.” Blumanthal got her Gold Award approved in June of 2019 and found out that she had received the grant in full a few weeks later. After this, she began planning what she wanted to be there. She explained, “I asked a lot of my peers what they would want there. I have also reached out to a ton of different health care providers.” This program will become statewide next year because everyone else on the Nebraska girl scout program team is going to be doing it. 

 The sustainability portion of this project is a brochure Blumanthal is creating that will list all of the mental health care providers in the panhandle along with their contact information. It is accessible to teens and everyone who would need it. 

Blumanthal has done many things to promote this event including newspaper and radio interviews. The interview that she did with the Scottsbluff Star Herald has been shared 1000 times on Facebook alone and Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) has shared it nationwide. 

Blumanthal exclaimed, “Anyone can come to this! I’m kind of leaning towards more highschoolers because that is what I’m going through right now and that is the audience the BHECN wants me to reach out to since they are close to going to college and pursuing their education. That’s who some of the booths are targeting but there are going to be other things there for everyone.” She went on to say, “There will be activities there for kids to do too. I think it’s important for kids to understand that they have these resources now so that in the future they don’t have any problems with it.” This program is for everyone of all ages. It is $10 to attend and those attending will receive a t-shirt. The new date of the event has yet to be determined, but will happen in the near future!