Jocelyne Lampron of Newton earns highest honor in Girl Scouting – the Gold Award
NEWTON, NH – So many people are going hungry. Providing something to eat should be simple, right? Girl Scout Jocelyne Lampron found out that it’s not that simple, but overcame many obstacles to provide meals in her community. For her service, she has earned the highest honor in Girl Scouting for a high schooler, the Girl Scout Gold Award.
Lampron, 18, of Newton, had an epiphany one rainy April day, returning home from softball practice, which resulted in her project, Serving Sanborn’s Community with a Soup Kitchen.
“I was kind of annoyed that we had practice, because I was soaked,” she said. She saw a man riding a bike in the rain, and realized “he was probably biking at least 5 miles to get somewhere that was actually covered because obviously he doesn’t want to sit out in the rain. It was mid-April, so it wasn’t freezing, but at the same time definitely not comfortable. But it just kind of hit me.” She thought about how her family has often donated to food pantries and other causes, and how she was raised to be grateful for her good fortune. “We have a food pantry (in the community), but a home-cooked meal after a long day just is so much better than getting, like, a can of beans.”
Lampron decided that providing a hot meal would be a great way to feed people, but it wasn’t long before she ran into the rules and regulations that are meant to keep people safe but can be roadblocks to good intentions.
“It was really hard,” she said. “I was 17, and I’m not going to post on Facebook, ‘Come to me to get meals.’ A lot of places were like, we don’t take meals. Or we would only take so many. I set a goal of 100, and thought it would be pretty easy. But it was harder to get people who wanted or were able to take them. So we had to work in our commercial kitchen. We had to package it all up. We had to wear gloves, do all of this. There were so many set rules that I had just never thought about.”
Ultimately, Lampron organized four cooking events at Sanborn Regional High School, providing about 200 packaged meals-to-go to a church in Plaistow, the Newton food pantry, and the Fremont food pantry. Her high school field hockey team pitched in to cook, creating a bonding opportunity along with the community service. She also created a PowerPoint that others can use to continue her program, providing 12 months of recipes for a monthly food kitchen project.
Brian Stack, principal of Sanborn Regional High School at the time, advised Lampron on her project and helped her with connections to town offices who could give her support.
“I think it was a fitting project for a young lady that works hard to give back to her community when she sees the need,” he said. “This was an excellent project to help her navigate the logistics and complexities that sometimes come up as you try to offer a service in a community and you need the right entry point and outlet.”
Lampron is grateful to the many people who gave donations of food and packaging, including the Shaw’s in Plaistow, which allowed her to take donations of meat.
She also learned a lot and gained useful life skills.
“There are people out there that need help, but sometimes coordinating to get to the people that need it is one of the hardest tasks,” she said. “Things are not always what it seems like. Sounds cliché, but you think you can just donate meals to people, and then there’s 20 roadblocks in the middle. I learned that things aren’t a straight path.”
The project taught her that she can set her mind on a goal and accomplish it. “I’m not good at the quitting thing,” she said.
A Girl Scout since her earliest years, Lampron has enjoyed the sisterhood and friendship of Girl Scouts, going to summer camp at Camp Chenoa, selling cookies, and traveling to Savannah, Georgia, where the birthplace of Girl Scouts’ founder, Juliette Gordon Low, is located. She and her troop have done a lot of fundraisers, including bake sales, yard sales, and craft fairs. She and her family also participated in the Jimmy Fund.
Lampron graduated from Sanborn Regional High School last spring, where she received two awards – one for community service and one for being the most outstanding student for her service. She played field hockey in high school, something she continues to enjoy as a freshman at Colby-Sawyer College. She is studying nursing, with a goal of working in pediatric oncology.
“I like to see the best in people,” she said. “…giving people the opportunity to live longer … I want to be there for them.”
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Gold Award Girl Scouts don’t just change the world for the better, they change it for good. The Gold Award is earned by girls in grades 9–12 who demonstrate extraordinary leadership in developing sustainable solutions to local, national, and global challenges. Since 1912, Girl Scouts have answered the call to drive lasting, impactful change. They earn college scholarships, demonstrate high educational and career outcomes, and are active in their communities.
Jocelyne Lampron has answered the call to drive lasting, impactful change, and her Gold Award is a testament to her remarkable dedication to improving her community and the world.
About the Girl Scout Gold Award
- Gold Award Girl Scouts on average spend one to two years on their project.
- A Gold Award project must be sustainable after the girl’s involvement ends.
- The average age of Gold Award Girl Scouts is 17.
- Since 1916, more than 1 million girls have earned the Gold Award or its equivalent.
- Gold Award Girl Scouts are entitled to enlist at a higher pay grade when they join the military.
- University research indicates that noting you are a Gold Award Girl Scout on a college application is influential in the admissions decision-making process.
- Thirty young women from New Hampshire and Vermont earned their Gold Award in the 2021-2022 membership year as part of Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains.
- The Girl Scout Gold Award is the mark of the truly remarkable.
We Are Girl Scouts
Girl Scouts bring their dreams to life and work together to build a better world. Through programs from coast to coast, Girl Scouts of all backgrounds and abilities can be unapologetically themselves as they discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges—whether they want to climb to the top of a tree or the top of their class, lace up their boots for a hike or advocate for climate justice, or make their first best friends. Backed by trusted adult volunteers, mentors, and millions of alums, Girl Scouts lead the way as they find their voices and make changes that affect the issues most important to them. To join us, volunteer, reconnect, or donate, visit girlscouts.org.
Girl Scouts of the Green and White Mountains serves girls throughout New Hampshire and Vermont through volunteer-run troops, events, and virtual programs. Visit www.girlscoutsgwm.org to
