Havre Girl Scout earns prestigious Gold Award

Press release

Billings - Girl Scouts of Montana and Wyoming announced Liliana Smith of Havre has earned her Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest achievement a Girl Scout can earn.

Gold Award Girl Scouts, like Smith, are changing the world today-their ingenuity enables them to meaningfully address some of the most pressing issues facing their communities and the world.

For her Gold Award project, Smith partnered with her local dance studio to offer a free Intro to Dance class geared towards low-income families. As a dancer, she often heard complaints about the cost of dance classes and how it wasn't accessible to all who wanted to participate.

"I wanted to make sure everyone had the opportunity to experience various styles of dance," Smith said. "Students were introduced to tap dance, ballet, jazz, and contemporary styles of dance. They were able to perform a dance the learned at the local Christmas Dance Gala and at the recital with the local dance studio."

In order to make this project sustainable, a requirement of all Girl Scout Gold Awards, Smith created an Instagram account and YouTube channel to share videos and her love of dance. The videos feature the basics of dance so anyone, no matter where they live, can learn how to dance. If you're interested in following Smith's journey, you can follow her project on Instagram or YouTube by following @DanceBasics101. Because of her project, the local dance studio now offers a sliding scale for tuition costs.

The Gold Award is the highest achievement a Girl Scout can earn, available to girls in high school by developing and carrying out lasting solutions to issues in their communities and beyond. Gold Award Girl Scouts address the root cause of a problem, plan and implement innovative solutions to drive change, and lead a team of people to success. Gold Award Girl Scouts truly are the world changers, role models, and real-life heroes we all look up to. They're excellent candidates for colleges, scholarships, competitive internship programs, and exciting careers.

To learn more, people can visit https://www.gsmw.org .