State Honoree

Athena Morales, 13, of Las Vegas, Nev., a seventh-grader at Explore Knowledge Academy Charter Secondary, developed a STEM-based educational patch program for the Girl Scouts and plans to use the proceeds from the sale of the patches to install two filtered water fountains with bottle-filling stations in her community. As a Brownie, Athena learned about the importance of water resources in her city, the declining water level in Lake Mead, and the trash created by used plastic water bottles. “Living in the Mojave Desert, water is a very important resource in our community,” she said. After participating in a trash cleanup at a wetlands park and seeing the large number of discarded plastic bottles, Athena and her troop decided to use money from cookie sales to purchase refillable water bottles.

But then they ran into the problem of running out of water, both at their Girl Scout house and on walks in a local nature preserve. So, Athena decided she would try to raise enough money to install water fountains at the Girl Scout facility, as well as at the nature preserve. She came up with the idea of developing a series of patches that Girl Scouts could earn by performing specific science-related educational activities. After creating the requirements and materials needed by participants to earn each patch, Athena designed the patches and then sent out requests for quotes from embroidery companies. She hopes that the sale of her patches, along with the other fundraising activities, will generate sufficient funds to complete her water project.