Staff Reports | Community Updates
Girl Scouts–Arizona Cactus-Pine Council is congratulating Girl Scout Rayne Thompson for earning the 2025 Girl Scouts of the USA Gold Award Scholarship, which recognizes her exceptional Gold Award project, “Thriving Minds: Innovative Approaches to Neurodivergent Care.”
The prestigious GSUSA Gold Award Scholarship awards $5,000 to one Girl Scout per council to support post-secondary education, according to a press release.
Ms. Thompson exemplified core components of the Gold Award by making a measurable and sustainable impact in addressing an issue of local, national, or global significance, Girl Scout representatives tell the Digital Free Press.
Ms. Thompson provided meaningful resources and support for neurodivergent children and their families by partnering with the Phoenix Chapter of Jack and Jill of America, Inc. to assemble and deliver Thriving Minds kits, each with an informational brochure, sensory tools, and age-appropriate books by African American authors — donated by the Arizona Center for African American Resources.
To sustain the efforts, Ms. Thompson created a handbook to train the next chapter program director, who will continue to manage the box kits and documents moving forward.
Ms. Thompson’s project was powered by more than $2,000 in donated books and a $500 micro grant from AZCAAR, as well as proceeds she earned during the Girl Scout Cookie Season. Proceeds from Girl Scout Cookie sales stay 100% local to directly fund local troops’ community service efforts, support girls’ access to resources for milestone projects such as the Gold Award, and more.
“Rayne represents Girl Scout leaders who are making a difference through the Gold Award, and we congratulate her on earning this distinguished national honor,” said Mary Mitchell, co-CEO of GSACPC. “Projects like hers are creating lasting change in our communities and carrying the importance of public service into the next generation of leaders.”
A Girl Scout for 14 years, Thompson is pursuing her dream of becoming an adolescent psychiatrist. As a 2025 Gold Award Scholarship recipient, Thompson receives recognition alongside the 2025 Gold Award Class.
