Local Girl Scouts Earn Gold Award, Highest Honor In Girl Scouting

STAUNTON – Lily Dothager and Vivienne Dothager, both of Staunton, have each earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor in Girl Scouting. Lily earned her Gold Award by providing much needed renovation to Staunton Fireman's Park bathrooms. Vivienne developed an Everyone Understands Kindness initiative to promote understanding and education about the deaf and hard of hearing community.

Lily Dothager – Park It: Staunton Fireman's Park Bathroom Remodel

Lily wanted to better her community by renovating the bathrooms at her local park, Staunton Fireman’s Park. She viewed this project as a task of necessity due to the public health and safety concerns of the facilities, especially the women’s restroom, including stall doors that lacked privacy, sinks that were falling apart, broken soap dispensers, unstable toilets, and even a hole in the roof. Additionally, community members expressed concern that the bathrooms were not designed with families in mind, even though they use it most.

To improve the facilities, the Staunton Community High School graduate designed taller doors with locks to provide more privacy, added purse hooks to the stalls, replaced the broken sink, and added changing tables to both the men’s and women’s bathrooms. She also successfully advocated to the City Council about fixing the bathroom’s larger structural issues, which resulted in patching the hole in the roof and replacing the unstable toilets.

“Even in a small town like mine, women and girls deserve privacy and safety while using public bathrooms. If I can make these changes here, I can be an example,” stated Lily. “By doing this renovation, I am contributing to fixing of an ongoing problem of a lack of safe and usable public bathrooms.”

Vivienne Dothager – Everyone Understands Kindness

Vivienne sought to address a lack of educational opportunities offered to youth on the treatment and topic of deaf and hard of hearing individuals. Since deaf and hard of hearing children often go to classes tailored specifically to them, hearing students have fewer opportunities to interact with and learn about the deaf community, leading to the potential for a lack of understanding.

Vivienne decided to address these barriers by writing and publishing a children’s book that teaches some sign language and represents the deaf and hard of hearing community with positivity and inclusivity. In her story, a young girl learns sign language and how to communicate with a deaf classmate. The Staunton Community High School graduate published her book on Amazon, read the story to children throughout her community, and donated copies to her local elementary schools, Staunton Public Library, and Bunker Hill Public Library.

“Improving interactions between hearing and deaf or hard of hearing children is important to prevent children from feeling lonely, left out or left behind,” stated Vivienne. “I want all children to feel like they are included and make new friends.”

About the Girl Scout Gold Award

The prestigious Gold Award is the highest achievement a Girl Scout can receive, earned by girls in grades 9-12 who demonstrate extraordinary leadership and create a significant and sustainable positive change in a community. Gold Award Girl Scouts address the root cause of a problem, plan and implement innovative solutions to drive lasting change, and lead a team of people to success - all while learning essential skills that prepare them for all aspects of life.

Lily and Vivienne are two of eleven 2026 Gold Award Girl Scouts in central Illinois. Together, these young women have devoted over 1,000 hours of service to causes they are passionate about, proving they are committed to making their communities – and the world – a better place.

The Gold Award Girl Scouts will be honored for their remarkable achievements at Girl Scouts of Central Illinois’ Green Carpet Gala Awards Ceremony on April 19 from 1-4 p.m. at Erin’s Pavilion in Springfield.

Girls in grades K–12 can join Girl Scouts any time during the year to begin their Girl Scout journey. As girls grow with Girl Scouts, they learn hands-on leadership skills they’ll use to make their mark through the Gold Award and beyond.

To join or volunteer, visit GetYourGirlPower.org.

About Girl Scouts of Central Illinois

Girl Scouts of Central Illinois (GSCI) serves over 10,000 girls and 2,000 adult members in 38 counties throughout central Illinois with the mission of building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. Through GSCI’s programming, Girl Scouts of all backgrounds and abilities can be unapologetically themselves as they discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges – whether they want to climb to the top of a tree or the top of their class, lace up their boots for a hike or advocate for climate justice, or make their first best friends. Backed by trusted adult volunteers, mentors, and thousands of alums, Girl Scouts lead the way as they find their voices and make changes that affect the issues most important to them. To join, volunteer, reconnect, or support Girl Scouts of Central Illinois, visit GetYourGirlPower.org or call 888-623-1237.

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