Thursday, June 12, 2008

Eleven girls in Troop 580 at the First Baptist Church of Glenarden received the Girl Scouts' highest honor, the Gold Award, last week. In addition, Marcus Gray recently became the 27th member of the church's Troop 1657 to achieve the Boy Scouts' highest rank, Eagle Scout.

The Gold Award was presented Friday at the Nyumburu Cultural Center at the University of Maryland in College Park to Janelle R. Finger, Tiffany S. Francios, Vykiita Y. Gillespie, Ashlee Greene, Devin M. Holley, Laura L. Joell, Tameika Lattimore, Brittany L. Lewis, Monica N. Myers, Kayla D. Smith and Morgan D. Wray. The recipients created programs to help protect young people from Internet predators and to help fight childhood obesity, among others.

Marcus received his Eagle Scout medal Sunday at the Prince George's County Sports and Learning Complex in Landover. Although Marcus lives in Bowie, his Eagle Scout project focused on raising money and securing equipment for a computer lab for children in the District's Shaw community.

-- HAMIL R. HARRIS