Roanoke freshman recognized with National Gold Award from the Girl Scouts

Gracie Goodpasture, a freshman from Ashland, Virginia, is being recognized this week with the National Gold Award from the Girl Scouts USA. The Gold Award is the organization’s top award. Goodpasture is one of ten “teen activists and change-makers who created innovative and sustainable solutions for today’s most pressing issues.”

Goodpasture is in New York City for events related to the awards on Friday – the International Day of the Girl. They will be attending Girls Speak Out at the United Nations and an awards ceremony for the National Gold Awards. National Gold Award winners were selected from Gold Award Girl Scouts from across the country. Goodpasture will be featured in public service announcements and events representing Girl Scouts for the coming year.

Goodpasture’s platform for her Gold Award is centered around her long time interest in chickens and farm-to-table education. She created a curriculum to help teach students at the schools in her area about the importance of eating healthy foods without chemicals or processing. She even created her own breed of chicken – the Goodpasture breed – as a heartier and healthier food source.

“Knowing I’ve helped educate this generation so they know the difference between natural, real food and the stuff you buy that’s full of preservatives and hormones makes me really proud,” Goodpasture said in the Gold Award story, “because, ultimately, it means these kids have a greater chance of a healthy future.”

Goodpasture is a graduate of the Steward School in Henrico, Virginia. At Roanoke, she’s a member of the Honors Program and plans to major in biology with a minor in Spanish. She’s already a member of the Club Soccer team and the Beekeeper’s  Society. Her long term plan is to attend medical school and become a pediatrician or a pediatric oncologist. Her career goal has been inspired by her mother, Melanie, who is a long time cancer survivor.

“The Girl Scout Gold Award always makes an Honors Program applicant stand out because I know that it represents significant achievement and responsibility that connects well with our Honors curriculum requirements,” Dr. Chad Morris, director of the Honors Program, said. “Gracie has jumped into Roanoke and our Honors community with both feet, sharing her work ethic and characteristic sense of caring with everyone who has the good fortune of meeting her. I’m incredibly proud of her achievement, and I can’t wait to see what she achieves here at Roanoke College.”

Goodpasture’s interest in chickens goes way back. In the third grade, she had an assignment to become an expert in something that interested her. So she and her mother contacted Perdue Farms CEO Jim  Perdue for  a phone interview. Instead, he invited them to the Perdue Farm for a tour. Many years later, when she created the curriculum for her project and helped build a chicken coop for her school, Todd Haymore, who was the the Virginia Secretary of Agriculture at the time, came to the ribbon cutting for the coop.