Mayor Bill Haslam presented three high school students with Certificates of Congratulations from the City of Knoxville for earning the Girl Scout Gold Award. The presentations were made during the City Council meeting Tuesday night.
Receiving the certificates were Emily Hooyman, a senior at Farragut High School; Stefanie Lewis, a senior at Hardin Valley Academy and Kelly Sellars, a senior at Knoxville Catholic High School.
The Gold Award is the highest honor that a girl may earn in Girl Scouting and is awarded for outstanding achievement in several areas including leadership and community service.
One of the requirements for the award is using those skills to develop and complete a project that benefits the community.
Hooyman, the daughter of Julie and Jeff Hooyman, led construction of an outdoor classroom at Spring Hill Elementary School. As part of that effort she and her team of volunteers built and placed several permanent benches for the classroom.
Lewis, the daughter of Susan and Steve Lewis, developed a project called "Ride to Success," in which she created a comfortable seating area for the lobby of the STAR Therapeutic Riding Center by making and staining benches, sewing bench pads and framing children's art for decoration.
Sellers, the daughter of Patricia and David Sellers, gave the Youth Room at Sacred Heart Cathedral an "Extreme Makeover." She spackled, primed and painted the walls, laid carpet and replaced furniture. Kelly used the room to reinstate a youth ministry that had been inactive for several years.
The City of Knoxville is proud of these three young women and pleased to recognize their accomplishments.