Girl Scouts Gold Award Winners Honored

Girl Scouts Gold Award recipients

(Press Release) Deerfield Beach, Fla. (June 3, 2026) – Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida recognized 22 outstanding young women from Broward, Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, Okeechobee and Indian River counties with the prestigious 2026 Girl Scouts Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouting. The annual Gold Award Ceremony was recently held at the Doubletree by Hilton Deerfield Beach. 

During the ceremony, each Girl Scout was presented with a Gold Award pin by a special adult who supported her through her project and Girl Scout career. In return, the girl presented this adult with the Companion Gold Award pin.
 
Awarded to only 5% of eligible Girl Scouts nationwide, the Gold Award recognizes girls in grades 9 through 12 who demonstrate exceptional leadership, dedication and commitment to creating meaningful, sustainable change in their communities. Twelve of this year’s recipients are graduating high school seniors, six completed their projects last summer and returned to participate in the event following their first year in college, and four are current high school underclassmen
 
To earn the Gold Award, each Girl Scout must identify a community issue she is passionate about and lead a large-scale service project designed to create lasting impact. The Gold Award Class of 2026 took on issues including literacy; mental health; breast cancer, concussion, autism and endometriosis awareness; food insecurity and waste; foster care; and environmental sustainability. Their collective projects contributed more than 2,500 community service hours and partnered with dozens of local organizations to impact thousands of lives close to home and as far away as Tanzania in Africa. 
 
Gold Award projects require advanced communication, leadership and project management skills, often involving collaboration with nonprofits, schools, local governments and community organizations. The experience is designed to inspire a lifetime of civic engagement and leadership.
 
Often described as “what you want to be remembered for,” the Gold Award leaves a lasting legacy of activism, compassion and service long after a Girl Scout’s journey ends.
 
“I am impressed by the determination and creativity the Gold Award Class of 2026 demonstrated through their projects. Their community collaborations are remarkable, showing everyone the power of partnerships,” said Lisa Johnson, CEO of Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida. “Earning a Gold Award marks an important milestone in a Girl Scout’s career. The vision, commitment and leadership will continue to carry these extraordinary young women to new heights. This will forever distinguish them on scholarship applications, college admission essays and resumes.”
 
The 2026 Gold Awards ceremony sponsors included HCA Florida Healthcare, Amazon, Florida Power & Light and Publix Super Markets Charities and table sponsor Tula Hudson-Miller. To learn more about the Gold Award, scholarship opportunities or how to support Girl Scouts of Southeast Florida, please visit gssef.org.
 
The 2026 Gold Award Girl Scouts with ties to Jupiter are:
Keala Richichi, a Jupiter resident and senior at Jupiter High School, loves the game of golf and has been playing since she was 10 years old. She could not help but notice some discrepancies when it came to females, such as smaller fields, fewer players and even fewer caddies. That led to her project Caddie-Golf Junior Program. As Keala gained experience as a junior caddie, learning both golf and real-life ready skills, she set out to change the perception of female caddies and introduce the sport and opportunity to more girls. Through her collaboration with First Tee of the Palm Beaches, she created interesting educational videos that were distributed through community organizations, local golf courses with junior programs and multiple Palm Beach schools. Her series of six videos explain golf and invite young girls to explore it. Key topics include golf’s accessibility and fundamentals, names of the clubs, logistic considerations of a course layout, the rules of the course, and the responsibilities and benefits of being a caddie, all while breaking up the stereotypes surrounding girls in golf. Through interviews, social media and in-person presentations, Keala found that 80% of youth participants reported learning more about golf and 100% reported a high level of understanding and interest in the career role of professional caddies and the job’s educational benefits. Additionally, she successfully recruited two new female junior caddies at her home course.

Isabella Lombardo, a Loxahatchee resident and senior at Park Vista Community High School in Greenacres, found that endometriosis is a commonly misunderstood disease that is often misdiagnosed. This led her to her project, Endometriosis Awareness. Many women think that severe menstrual cycle pain is normal, but after much research and doctor’s appointments, they may learn that this painful condition occurs when tissue that is similar to the inner lining of the uterus grows outside the uterus. It often affects the ovaries, fallopian tubes and the tissue lining the pelvis. It seemed like no one wanted to discuss this disease. However, Isabella knew it was important and wanted to create a comprehensive educational campaign to tell more girls about this condition and ultimately raise their awareness to get involved and begin to know their own bodies. Through collaboration with Jupiter Medical Center and the Health Care District of Palm Beach County, Isabella created informational posters for her school’s female restrooms and hosted online information sessions to teach girls about the symptoms and long-term effects of endometriosis. Her message was spread to an international audience of girls in Tanzania in East Africa through a collaboration with Quality Healthcare Solutions and Consulting in West Palm Beach. For this group, she also organized a collection of reusable menstrual pads for girls in Tanzania that are eco-friendly, cost-effective and sustainable alternatives to disposable items. Isabella will attend Florida Gulf Coast University in the fall, where she will study marine biology.