Amanda Peralta Girl Scout Gold Award
Amanda Peralta, 18, of Gilbert loves animals and wants the community to feel the same way.
She is a Girl Scout on a mission to help animals and her service project has won her the honor of the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award that a Girl Scout age 14-18 can earn.
A Gold Award project must fulfill a need within a girl's community (whether local or global), create change, and hopefully, becomes something that becomes ongoing.
An Arizona native, Amanda said she became a Girl Scout in the first grade and has stayed in the organization because of its opportunities and because her mom was a troop leader. Her younger sister also is a Girl Scout.
"Selling cookies and doing crafts is a popular view of Girl Scouts," she said. "However I did much more than that. I went to conventions and got archery certified and learned a lot of skills."
For her Gold Award project, Amanda created biographies of all the cats at the Friends for Life Animal Shelter in Gilbert.
"The book included history on Friends for Life, adoption information, contact information and a bio of each cat," she said. "The book will be kept at a Pet Smart in Mesa to show all of the cats that are available for adoption at Friends for Life."
"My goal was to give each cat an equal opportunity to be adopted," she said. "People need to know about the cats that are not in the pet-shop window."
Amanda held workshops for three levels of Girl Scouts to present information on her project and Friends for Life. The Girl Scouts were eligible to earn a Girl Scout merit badge for their participation.
"I presented to these girls so that hopefully someone will want to keep up with and continue the book," she said. "I also wanted to encourage the girls to volunteer, and adopt an animal at the shelter."
Amanda will be graduating from Mesquite High School in May and plans to attend Arizona State University to study nursing. She said she hopes to become a surgical technician.
She is currently in a sports-medicine program at her high school and attends all of the sports events at her school, which she said takes up a lot of her time.
"I used to play sports and have already learned about the physical aspect of sports," she said. "But I am now learning the health part, which is more beneficial because I understand the body now."
Amanda belongs to the National Honor Society and the Spanish Honor Society. In her spare time she likes to read and play softball. She volunteers regularly at Friends for Life, and at various community service activities at local hospitals.
She has two cats and said her mom is the person she admires most in her life.
"My mom encourages me to never limit myself," she said. "She is also really into Girl Scouts and understands me."
Read more: (
visit link)