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Girl Scout’s project earns highest honor

Winning an award is always a humbling moment in life, especially when the recipient recognizes the people behind their achievement.

Such is the case for local high school senior Courtney Lopau, who recently completed her Girl Scouts Gold Award project.

The Gold Award is the highest achievement in the Girl Scouts earned by Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts. According to information on the Girl Scouts website, only 5.4 percent of eligible Girl Scouts successfully earn the Gold Award.

To complete her project and win the award, Lopau managed to pull off an impressive feat. Project requirements include a minimum of 80 hours, which she managed to fit in between two jobs, school and extracurricular activities. Fortunately, the project involved painting, a personal favorite subject of Lopau’s.

“In the Sunday school classrooms at Grace Lutheran Church, there were some murals that were started around 10 years ago that just sat partially drawn and untouched, and they just made the rooms feel incomplete,” she said. “I’ve noticed them throughout the years because I am a member of the church and there are a lot of Girl Scout events held there. So I asked Nicki Kueker, who works there, to help me get started on painting those murals.”

As another portion of her project, Lopau was required to involve the community in some way. To do so, she tapped into her love of painting and some past experiences to help area elementary students learn the hobby.

“I held two different painting classes for elementary students,” she said. “It was a step-by-step painting class, and they did two different paintings.”

Lopau said materials for the classes were paid for by a required fee, allowing her to purchase canvases, paint and other needed items.

When asked about her time teaching the classes, Lopau said it was a mix of old and new experiences.

“I had actually done painting classes like this in the community but it was older people doing it,” she said. “I had been in a class like this, so that’s where I got the idea, but it was different teaching younger kids, especially when they want to do their own thing.

As for the murals themselves, Lopau says those supplies were donated to her, and she was continually motivated to complete the project.

“Painting is something I’ve always been interested in, so that kept me going back and kept me motivated,” she said. “I really enjoyed doing it.”

Lopau notes that of the two, the murals took most of her time, clocking in at about 70 hours work. The classroom time took another 10 hours.

She noted she is thankful to those who helped her, including Kueker, Nancy Klemek, her mother Dawn Lopau and various family and friends who helped paint the murals.

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