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Community Corner

Burlington resident installs fishing pier for seniors and earns highest Girl Scout honor

Milwaukee – Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast (GSWISE) has awarded Burlington resident and Girl Scout Cat Vukodinovich the highest honor in Girl Scouting—the Girl Scout Gold Award. Girl Scouts who receive this award are challenged to complete a variety of requirements and carry out a project that meets an expressed need in the community and beyond.

Vukodinovich’s project was twofold: Using grant money, she purchased a pier that she repaired, painted and enhanced with ADA-compliant railings. She installed the pier in a pond at the Waterford Senior Living Center.

After installing the pier, Vukodinovich hosted “Fishing For a Smile,” a social event to bring together teenagers and senior residents at the center.

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Vukodinovich said that her close relationship with her grandparents inspired her to take on the project.

 “I like to fish, and still do with my grandparents,” she said in her Gold Award final report. She also spent time as a child visiting a great aunt in a nursing home, where she said “it was amazing to me that simply a smile would make their faces light up.”

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Vukodinovich is a senior at Waterford Union High School. After graduation she plans to attend college. She hopes to one day own her own business, using her talents to work in advertising.

"Earning the Girl Scout Gold Award designation is truly a remarkable achievement, and this young woman exemplifies leadership in all its forms," said Christy L. Brown, Chief Executive Officer of Girl Scouts of Wisconsin Southeast. "She saw a need in her community and took action. Her extraordinary dedication, perseverance, and leadership, is making the world a better place."

About the Girl Scout Gold Award

The Gold Award represents the highest achievement in Girl Scouting; it recognizes girls in grades 9 through 12 who demonstrate extraordinary leadership through sustainable and measurable Take Action projects. Since 1916, girls have successfully answered the call to go gold, an act that indelibly marks them as accomplished members of their communities and the world. A Girl Scout who has earned her Gold Award immediately rises one rank in any of the U.S. military branches.

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