Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan honors Abby Moore with the most prestigious award in the world for girls: the Girl Scout Gold Award. Abby, of Kimball, is among 13 young women who have taken the initiative to bettering their communities through sustainable community change projects. The time and commitment they’ve dedicated towards these projects prove they’re true leaders and exceptional examples for all girls to look up to.

The Gold Award is Girl Scout’s highest honor and is presented to Girl Scouts who address a community issue or problem they are passionate about. They’re required to spend a minimum of 80 hours investigating the problem, creating a plan, and implementing it.

For her Gold Award project, Abby took action to give kindergarteners in the Marysville School District the extra help they needed outside of the classroom to learn their “Fry Words”. Fry Words, commonly known as sight words or high frequency words, are the most common words used in English. They must be easily recognized in order to achieve reading fluency. Abby’s ultimate goal was to have less children struggle academically, and to give them the confidence they need to move on to the first grade. She organized a team to help her provide free after school tutoring. Her team included the kindergarten teachers at Gardens Elementary, National Honors Society (NHS) advisors, and the National Honors Society (NHS) students.

Due to the pandemic and students shifting to virtual learning, Abby pivoted her program and created a Facebook group called “Small ‘Fries’ Conquer Fry Words” where she introduced a new Fry word and activity to go along with that word two to three times a week. Parents of kindergarteners were invited to the group by Abby, teachers, and friends. This group is now reaching kindergartners all the way in Grand Rapids, as well as other states like Missouri and California. Abby’s project is currently undergoing some changes so that she and her team and can begin face-to-face tutoring Fall 2021.

“I learned that I’m a leader, problem solver, and an inspiration to others.”