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Rebecca Burns is pictured in her Girl Scout vest, filled with merit badges and patches, during a senior photoshoot.
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Rebecca Burns, a senior at Bellefonte High School, is pictured helping a Girl Scout build a chapel as part of a workday. Burns recently earned the Girl Scout Gold Award.
BELLEFONTE — After years of work on projects to benefit the community, Bellefonte High School senior Rebecca Burns has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, an achievement made by fewer than 6 percent of Senior and Ambassador Scouts each year. She will receive the award in a ceremony in 2024.
According to Burns, the Gold Award had been her goal for a long time — and it certainly takes preparation.
The requirements include two senior-level “journeys” — projects helping the community — or one such journey plus a previous Silver Award.
In her case, Burns began in fourth grade with a Bronze Award earned for running a car wash and food drive. She later achieved her middle-school Silver Award by building a free library at the United Methodist Church in Pleasant Gap.
For the Gold Award, Burns turned her attention to her church community.
With the support of Troop Leader Rachelle Weiser and Advisor David Nicastro, she developed a program for Scouts to earn the religious badge for their level by learning about seven lesser-known, local Catholic saints.
The saints Burns focused on, some of whom are still on the path to canonization, all have connections to the Eastern United States, making the program highly relevant to Catholic Scouts in central Pennsylvania.
Step by step, Scouts can not only earn a religious badge from the diocese, but also supplement it with smaller badges, called “rockers,” bearing the names of the saints they have come to know.
To complete the project, Burns spent two years researching the selected saints, then developed the badge program requirements as well as workbooks to guide Scouts and their advisors.
The materials were later approved by the National Federation for Catholic Youth Ministry.
The idea for this project came about after Burns attended a Scout retreat run by the Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown at Saint Francis University.
Participants had all visited the Gallitzin Chapel House to learn about its namesake, Prince Demetrius Gallitzin, a Russian prince who became a Catholic priest and missionary in Western Pennsylvania.
While technically a Servant of God rather than a canonized saint, Gallitzin lived an inspiring life, and Burns was amazed to find that many don’t know about him — or about other holy people in the history of our region.
With her educational patch program, she hopes to spread the word.
While it was the Russian prince who inspired her project, Burns has a particularly close affinity with one of the other figures in the program: St. Elizabeth Ann Seton, the first saint born on U.S. soil and the patroness of educators.
Burns herself aims to become a teacher and will concentrate on Music and Spanish.
At the moment, she is enrolled in the highest level of high-school Spanish and plays in the band.
Her extensive involvement in school and extracurriculars makes this Gold Award achievement seem even more amazing. When does she have time for Girl Scouts?
Burns admits that it’s difficult to fit it all in, but well worth it for any girl who wants to do the same.
“Even if it’s hard to make it to meetings, you can still strive for badges and awards,” she says. “Don’t be afraid to do it on your own.”
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