To earn her Girl Scout Gold Award, Kaitlynn Krupp planned a sweet potato drop with Society of St. Andrew. James Clemens High School Band members bagged the vegetables for needy recipients. CONTRIBUTED

MADISON – In 2016, the Gold Award for Girls Scouts celebrates its centennial. Girl Scout officials in North Alabama are showcasing accomplishments by girls at a young age over the past 100 years.

“Our research confirms the lifetime benefits for girls who earn the Gold Award and the impact it has on their lives,” Brittani Harris with the Girl Scout organization said.

“According to ‘The Power of the Girl Scout Gold Award: Excellence in Leadership and Life,’ a report by the Girl Scout Research Institute, girls who earn the Gold Award display more positive life outcomes than” girls who are not Girl Scout alumnae, Harris said.

The results of the girls’ work pertain to positive sense of self, life satisfaction, leadership, life success, community service and civic engagement, she said.

Kaitlynn Krupp is one local Scout who excelled with her service project for the Gold Award. Krupp graduated from James Clemens High School in 2015.

Krupp’s project dealt with solving hunger in the community and focused on getting fresh food to people who were hungry. “Kaitlynn Krupp realized that most of the people are middle class, and people automatically assume that everyone the community is well off, but that is not the case,” Harris said.

“Kaitlynn wanted to shed light on this fact and reach out to those who were overlooked and essentially in need of food. In partnership with the Society of St. Andrews and James Clemens Band, Krupp bagged fresh green beans into five-pound bags” for distribution to individual in need, Harris said.

By the end of the project, Krupp was able to get 18,000 pounds of fresh green beans distributed to organizations such as Manna House, Inside-Out Ministries, Harvest Youth Club and Downtown Rescue Mission. These agencies then gave the vegetables to people in need.

More than 90 percent of Girl Scouts not only attributed their success in life to Girl Scouts, but they also said that belonging to Girl Scouts has had a positive impact on their lives, Harris said. Furthermore, these young women said they could not have had access to the same experiences anywhere else.

For more information, call 800-734-4541 or visit girlscoutsnca.org.