While we’ve all heard of Girl Scouts and their delicious cookie-selling adventures, there is another group throughout the United States whose work is extraordinary and unlike any Boy or Girl Scout group. American Heritage Girls are a faith-based group composed of girls ages five to eighteen.
The girls are divided into their respective groups based on age. Starting with age five in the Pathfinder group, the girls make their way up the ladder to Tenderheart, Explorer, Pioneer, and finally Patriot, where they are given the choice to earn the Stars & Stripes Award. As they make their way through the levels, the girls are given an exceptional community where they learn the skills needed to serve not only their community but also honor God through Godly leadership and projects.
As a distinguished Patriot working toward her Stars & Stripes Award, Lauren Moore has been with American Heritage Girls since the young age of five. She has not only experienced the entire program but has gained valuable insight into what leadership looks like as well as a Christ-centered community. “The leadership skills I got out of it is what I really love the most out of the whole program,” says Lauren. As mentioned, Lauren is working on her Stars & Stripes Award which is an optional, highest-pinnacle award obtained through a project where she works with a non-profit organization to not only bless the community but to develop the skills needed in order to manage a large-scale project. This project spans over six months and must be extremely detail-oriented, so much so that a stranger should be able to pick up where she left off without any questions. Once the non-profit is chosen, she starts to fundraise for it and find volunteers to help kick-start the project. Typically, volunteers come from younger girls of a specific troop in order to create the leadership roles desired by American Heritage Girls.
Lauren’s non-profit of choice is called Trot 2 Your Heart and it is close to her heart for multiple reasons. Having grown up loving horses and taking horse-riding lessons, Lauren saw Trot 2 Your Heart as a clear way to give back. Yet, she has a deeper connection to this equine therapy non-profit organization than just a love for horses.
As a private organization that strives to use horses to connect with humans, Trot 2 Your Heart has become a catalyst for change in Lauren’s life. In Lauren’s family, her two brothers have high-functioning autism and Trot 2 Your Heart gave them a smoother transition into connecting with the world around them. Because the horses understand and can analyze our body language, they become a perfect encouragement for socialization and engagement among people who struggle with different types of processing and coordination skills.
When talking about their horses, Trot 2 Your Heart says that horses “instinctively analyze and react to our body language and other non-verbal cues providing us with honest, non-judgmental feedback. Connecting with a horse provides comfort, and encourages socialization, trust, and confidence.” Through this experience, Lauren decided that they were the perfect non-profit. “They have helped my family so much in that way and I want to see this as an opportunity to give back.”
Now, to the meat of the project! Lauren’s goal for Trot 2 Your Heart is to build a giant gate around the property with two seating areas right outside the gate. Having mentioned that this was a big necessity for them, Lauren decided that this would be the perfect project to give back to the community. Once she has complete funding for the project, she’ll move onto the building stage where she can finally break ground on getting the seating and gate started.
Just like any project, the work is reviewed and examined and then three members of the troop board interview you as if you were in a job interview. They not only discuss your project, but they review your time as an American Heritage Girl. Continuously, Lauren will be put into positions where she must use her leadership skills and communication in order to finalize her Stars & Stripes Project. But, once finished with the entire project, she then goes to an award ceremony where she officially finishes the American Heritage Girl program. Once done, she can become a leader-in-training for the younger girls.
Through this project, Lauren’s main goal is to inspire the younger girls of her new troop, Troop 1722 which has several younger girls and not many older ones. Also, Lauren’s goal is to show the younger girls the benefit of staying in the troop and providing meaningful leadership, and maintaining Godly relationships. This is a beautiful act of giving back to the community through inspiring and mentoring youth and guiding them to be successful leaders.