Sporting a backward baseball cap and a ready smile, Winifred Alves looks like a typical 17-year-old girl. The button-down shirt and Jerry Garcia tie give the first hint she is not your average high school senior.
The shirt and tie are the team uniform–for a hockey team made up only of boys, save Winifred, the first girl on the Lake Forest High School Junior Varsity Hockey Club and this year’s winner of the coach’s award. And that’s just the start of her story.
Her resume (yes, she has a resume) is far more extensive–and certainly more impressive–than that of many a 40-year-old. A grade-point of 4.5 out of 5. Tons of community service, from teen court to years of volunteering at a nursing home to helping with a fundraiser for a girl with muscular dystrophy to tutoring. She plays badminton, belongs to the Latin Club and takes college-level French classes at school. She has traveled to Australia, France and England. And she has been a Girl Scout for 13 years, bringing us to the latest in her list of accomplishments and accolades: being chosen as a Young Woman of Distinction, one of 12 Girl Scouts across the nation chosen to receive special honors. The 12 were selected from 2,500 Gold Award recipients this year.” says Winifred). That prestigious award, bestowed by Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., takes years of planning and writing and compiling to earn.
Is there anything this girl doesn’t do, and well?
“I’m getting a C in physics right now,” she says wryly, adding, “I think it’s a C-plus.”
Her schedule has her out of the house from early in the morning until 8–sometimes 10:30– at night. “I definitely get tired,” she said. “I sleep in on the weekends.” Except when she’s got a shift at The Gap.
She admits she gets raised eyebrows when she mentions she’s a Girl Scout.
In a story about her, the local paper said she was a 7-year-old Girl Scout.
A typo, perhaps, or maybe the result of a decision by an editor skeptical that there could be a 17-year-old Girl Scout.
“I definitely get shocked looks, and they say, `What year are you in high school?’ ” said Winifred. “But then you tell them you’re going to Washington, D.C., to have breakfast with Elizabeth Dole.”
Of the 2,500 Gold Award recipients, 12 girls from across the country were invited as a group to visit Washington and be honored for their outstanding achievements. As part of this group, Winifred spent a whirlwind five days touring the capital; having breakfast with Elizabeth Dole; participating in a panel discussion at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts along with “Today” show host Katie Couric, actor Mary Tyler Moore and feminist Gloria Steinem; and being feted at the National Press Club.
“It was absolutely amazing,” said Winifred, who eventually wants to be a juvenile court judge. “The highlight was definitely the Kennedy Center. It was like eavesdropping on a private conversation between the women.”
Winifred earned the Gold Award along with her troopmates (who were also recipients) and it was long in the making. She and 11 other girls started off together as Daisies (the first level of Girl Scouting) in kindergarten. Half of the girls dropped out over the years, but Winifred and five others–Ashley Clark, Penelope Dolin, Niki Leffingwell, Elizabeth Moran and Victoria Ward–stuck with it. Winifred’s mom, Dorothy, was their troop leader the entire time.
“Our core goal was always community service,” said Winifred. The girls started volunteering for a local nursing home–singing Christmas carols, making beds–and they have continued to volunteer there. As a group, they picked up other projects over the years, and did individual community service projects as well.
Three years ago, the six began their quest for the Gold Award.
Because they had always been heavily involved in community service, they came up with the idea of designing a book, “Community Service & YOU! Anyone, Anywhere, Anytime,” that gives people who want to volunteer ideas of where to go, and what kind of help is needed.
Part cheerleader, part guidebook, “Community Service & YOU!” is a mix of the girls’ stories of their own volunteer experiences, inspirational quotes, and highlights of several service organizations the girls found of special interest.
Winifred and her fellow troop members not only put together the guidebook and paid for the printing with babysitting money, they donated some of the roughly 200 copies printed to state and specialty libraries, and United Way offices. They sent one copy to each of the 50 governors and have received thank-you notes from a number of them. The book is also for sale through the local council. Proceeds from the book will go towards putting together a magazine that will publish the art and writing of Girl Scouts.
Like Winifred, the other girls are very active and involved, notes mom Dorothy Alves. But only one could go to Washington, D.C., to receive the award, and the national organization singled out Winifred because she’s been very involved in other levels of scouting. She’s on the board of directors at the Illinois Crossroads Council, the Girl Scout headquarters for the northeast corner of Illinois. She is serving a three-year term as a national delegate for the Girl Scouts of the U.S.A., and attended the 1999 National Convention in Kansas City, Mo., where she voted on policy issues and programming.
She also received the Girl Scout Medal of Honor in 1998 for performing a heroic act, when she got her father to the hospital promptly and safely when she thought he was having a heart attack. (It turned out he had a lung infection.)
She was amazed when she was chosen as one of 12 girls in the country for the Young Women of Distinction honor.
“I was speechless,” she said. “I got off the phone and screamed really loud. I gave my mom a hug. My mom was definitely a big part of getting me there.”
While in the capital, Winifred had some firsthand experience in networking, and it looks as though it’s going to pay off.
“The president and CEO of Youth Service America came up to me and said he wanted to represent the book,” said Winifred. “That’s so great. I will definitely be calling him.”
