Four Girl Scouts go for the gold

The Girl Scouts, a force for good in the Newport Beach community since the 1920s, awarded four girls their highest honor, the Gold Award, on Sunday.

Newport Beach Mayor Don Webb, a Boy Scout Eagle advisor for many years watched the medal ceremony with several Girl Scout leaders, some with as many as 43 years of experience in the organization.

The Gold Award is the highest recognition a Girl Scout can earn. Since 1980, about 1,800 girls from Orange County have earned the honor.

On Sunday, Lindy Tolbert, 17, of Newport Beach; Alle Hsu, 17, of Newport Coast; Natalie Bonhall, 17, of Dana Point; and Lauren Khalifa, 16, of San Juan Capistrano received Gold Awards at the Newport Center United Methodist Church in Newport Beach.

The Gold Award is essentially the equivalent of the Eagle Award for Boy Scouts. Initially, the Girl Scout award was called the Golden Eaglet. In order to earn the honor, the girls must complete a minimum of 50 hours in a project designed to make a lasting change in their community. The prerequisite badges take from 18 months to three years to earn.

Lindy, a junior at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School, from Troop 2100 has been in the Girl Scouts for 12 years.

Lindy named her project “Operation Winter Warmth.” She got the idea from her volunteer work for Serving People in Need, or SPIN, where she has volunteered for about two years. Members of SPIN deliver sandwiches, clothes and hygiene kits to the homeless in Santa Ana.

When Lindy decided to earn the Gold Award, she chose to do something for the homeless.

“I wanted to do something for these people I’ve met out here because I have so many friends here, both the homeless and volunteers,” Lindy said.

Lindy and her friends made more than 100 blankets for the homeless out of double-thick fleece material.

“It was fabulous -- I just had a really good time doing it and I got to help people I cared about,” she said.

Alle, a junior at Sage Hill High School, from Troop 2100, decided to produce a film for her school’s admission process.

As a student ambassador involved in giving tours to prospective students, she decided she wanted her project to be a gift from her class of 2007. Enlisting fellow students to help, they held meetings and made the film, which includes interviews with students and faculty.

“What’s most challenging is you have to learn to work with a lot of people, make decisions and take responsibility,” Alle said.

The Girl Scouts is “an uplifting experience in which you learn so much about the community,” Alle said.

Each month her troop visits the Boys and Girls Club in Laguna to help with the pre-school.

Natalie, a junior at St. Margaret’s Episcopal School and from Troop 210, has been in scouting for nine years.

She titles her project, “A Time for Reading.” The project was a reading fair held on two afternoons in December for the Boys and Girls Club of San Juan Capistrano.

She picked a few of her favorite books and began by reading to the children, who are in the first through fourth grades. After reading, she helped the students decorate bookmarks and then let some of the children read to her.

Natalie collected more than 100 books to donate to the club, and each child who attended the fair received two books to keep.

“The little kids like to be read to so they can hear the stories, and they like to read to me because it makes them feel like teachers,” she said.

Lauren attends J Serra Catholic High School in San Juan Capistrano and is from Troop 2100.

Lauren spent some time in the hospital when she was younger, so she designed her project to benefit the Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles.

She raised $2,300 by speaking to groups and used the money to purchase toiletries, reading materials and other items to make “parent comfort kits” for parents with children in the hospital. She made 200 kits.

“I felt there is a need for these things to ease the transition for parents who have a child in the hospital,” she said.

Lauren said she enjoys the fellowship of scouting and that the organization reaches those in need.dpt.06-girlscouts-1-CPhotoInfoL81OL57820060306ivoncrknDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Alexandra Hsu receives a congratulatory hug from friend Lydia Yan after receiving the Girl Scout Gold Award during a ceremony at Newport Center United Methodist Church. Alexandra received the award for a film about her high school, Sage Hill. dpt.06-girlscouts-2-CPhotoInfoL81OL57D20060306ivonigknDOUGLAS ZIMMERMAN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Lindy Tolbert shares a hug with den mother Margie Buckingham after receiving her Girl Scout Gold Award during a ceremony at Newport Center United Methodist Church. Tolbert received the award for her work with homeless people.