Badgerland Volunteer Appreciation
Adult volunteers make Girl Scouting happen! They selflessly give their time and talents to help build girls of courage, confidence, and character. We appreciate our volunteers and believe they deserve to be recognized for their contributions.
Meet our 2026 Volunteer Honorees!
Girl Scouts USA Volunteer of Excellence 
Girl Scouts USA Appreciation Pin
Girl Scouts USA Honor Pin
Girl Scouts USA Thanks Badge
Jennifer Laurie Volz
Known to nearly everyone here as "Squeak" — was 15 years old when she became one of the founding youth advisors of CampHERO, back in 2011. In the fifteen years since, she has graduated high school, earned a bachelor's degree, moved to Milwaukee, gotten married, earned a master's degree, bought a house, built a career as a mental health clinician, and had two children. And through every single one of those milestones, she has never once stepped away from CampHERO.
Scouting, as one nominator put it, is genuinely in Jennifer's DNA — her mother, father, and sister were all active Girl Scouts before her. One volunteer remembers meeting Jennifer as a Junior Girl Scout at a recruiting event, watching her lead a room of Daisies in Girl Scout songs, already a natural role model to girls younger than her. When CampHERO launched during her high school years, that same volunteer watched Jennifer instinctively spot which campers needed extra encouragement and step in to ease them into the experience — and by the end of that very first session, she was everyone's favorite counselor.
Over fifteen years, Jennifer has held nearly every role CampHERO has to offer — brochure model, Crew Leader, even self-described "gopher" — but her deepest impact has come through the CampHERO Leadership Team, the group of volunteers who meet year-round to run operations and steer the program's future. She quite literally wrote the handbook on how to be a great Crew Leader. And because her professional life as a mental health clinician runs parallel to her camp life, she has become the person everyone turns to for how to actually support a struggling camper — homesickness, behavioral challenges, feelings of isolation. One nominator called her "our phone-a-friend for best practice for girl well-being." Another described her gift plainly: "by listening to the girls and validating their feelings, Jennifer guides them through their struggles while ensuring they still get the most out of their CampHERO experience."
The truest measure of Jennifer's impact isn't in her titles — it's in the campers she shaped who grew up to become her colleagues. One young woman, who first met Jennifer as a camper back in 2017, wrote about what it meant to be one of the Girl Scouts Jennifer poured into: "she had a way of making every camper feel seen, valued, and capable of more than they believed possible." Years later, that same camper found herself serving beside Jennifer on the Leadership Team — and during a hard stretch at fire academy, Jennifer opened her home to her without a second thought. In her words: "she and her family welcomed me as one of their own... that first impression grew into a mentorship, then a friendship, and ultimately into someone I consider family."
It's worth noting, too, that Jennifer met her own husband, Nate — who now runs CampHERO's fire curriculum — through this very program. Their three-year-old daughter is, by all reports, already planning her own future at camp.
Jennifer has directly touched the lives of thousands of Girl Scouts and volunteers across fifteen uninterrupted years of service. As one longtime colleague summed it up: "she embodies everything Girl Scouts stands for. She serves her community, leads by example, is a sister to every Girl Scout, and makes the world a better place."
Badgerland Legacy Award
Charlene Hamilton
For forty-five years, Charlene Hamilton has been the heart of Girl Scouting in Viola, Wisconsin — a rural community of fewer than 700 people.
It started, as so many legacies do, small and almost by accident. Charlene's daughter, Julie, had been a Girl Scout, and when the family moved to a town with no troops, Julie begged her mom to lead one so she could keep going. Charlene, in her daughter's words, "reluctantly agreed." What she couldn't have known then is that she was starting something that would still be running four decades later. Even after Julie graduated high school, Charlene kept going — adding Girl Scout levels until, eventually, she was leading a troop at every single Girl Scout level, kindergarten through Ambassador, all at once.
For 45 years, Charlene has held to one simple belief: every Girl Scout deserves the chance to be a Girl Scout, no matter how small her town is or how thin the volunteer pool runs. In a community this size, it would have been easy for the program to quietly fade, or for only one age level to survive. Instead, Charlene made sure that never happened — welcoming as many as 30 Girl Scouts a year across every grade, carefully balancing different badge requirements and developmental needs so that every single one felt seen.
Her troops have learned to swim, hike, cook outdoors, tie knots, and administer first aid. They've bowled, roller-skated, and gone sledding together. They've placed flags and flowers at local cemeteries and marched in the Horse and Colt Show parade every single year. And for decades, Charlene ran something even bigger: the Sidie Hollow Girl Scout Day Camp, where she served as camp director for the last twenty years of its existence. Grown adults still light up remembering it. One former camper wrote that she remembers "learning camp songs, making food over the fire, holding a snapping turtle... learning about worms and a bunch of different birds — that's why I'm kind of obsessed with birds now." Another recalled Charlene's iconic boonie hat, worn every single year, and the excitement of returning each summer to see old friends and make new ones.
When COVID hit and everything went virtual, Charlene didn't skip a beat. She learned to run troop meetings over Zoom, prepared and delivered project supplies to every family, and refused to let her Girl Scouts lose their support system during a scary time.
Today, Charlene is leading the daughters of the Girl Scouts she once led. As one longtime SU20 volunteer put it: "some volunteers give for a season. Charlene Hamilton has given a generation — and then stayed to give another. That is not a career in volunteering. That is a legacy." Her own granddaughter said it even more simply: "she embodies the core values of Girl Scouting... her selfless dedication has shaped the lives of hundreds of young girls."
Badgerland Lasting Impact Award
CampHERO
Fifteen years ago, a small group of volunteers had an idea: create an experience where Girl Scouts could step into the world of fire, police, EMS, and protective services — not just to learn about those careers, but to discover something about themselves. That idea became CampHERO. And in the fifteen years since, this committee has turned it into a program that has reached more than 2,500 campers.
Behind every one of those 2,500 stories is the same quiet engine: a committee of volunteers — many of them working firefighters, police officers, paramedics, EMTs, and dispatchers — who give up their own time, year after year, to build an experience no single person could create alone. They write the curriculum. They recruit and train new volunteers. They run the towers, the simulations, the equipment stations. And they've built something that keeps renewing itself: campers who grow up and come back as volunteers themselves.
Cassie, one CampHERO camper, is an example of thousands. In the summer of 2014, after several summers at CampHERO, there was one thing she'd never been brave enough to try: rappelling. No one was going to force her onto that tower — at CampHERO, every challenge is a choice. But her fellow campers believed in her, and eventually, Cassie decided she was ready. She climbed the tower, connected to the ropes, and stepped toward the edge. Her feet slipped. She was scared. She stopped. And from the top of the tower, from the ground, from every corner of the course, came the same message: "You got this. Take your time." Step by step, she made her way down — and when she finally reached the ground, she collapsed, exhausted and overwhelmed, crying and laughing all at once.
Cassie went on to become an EMT and paramedic. She came back to CampHERO as a volunteer, and has kept coming back year after year — this year serving as a crew leader herself. The young person who once needed everyone to tell her "you got this" became one of the people telling the next generation the exact same thing. That's the pattern this committee has built, again and again: campers becoming volunteers, volunteers becoming mentors, and the next generation walking through the door already knowing they belong.
Over fifteen years, this committee has built lifelong friendships among its volunteers, brought families in to serve side by side, and opened real pathways into careers in fire, police, and EMS — while never measuring success by any one career path. Whether a camper goes on to protective services or somewhere else entirely, they all carry one thing forward: I can do this.
Fifteen years, one committee, and more than 2,500 young people later — that idea is now a legacy. And thanks to the people standing here tonight, it isn't finished.
Badgerland L.E.A.D.E.R.S Awards
2026 Volunteer Honorees
Leadership
Chelsey Bennett - Every troop has a heartbeat — the person whose steady presence tells the girls, and the grown-ups, that everything is going to be okay. For Troop 7333 in Cottage Grove, that person is Chelsey Bennett.
One night at Camp Wawbeek, when a fellow leader had to step away unexpectedly, Chelsey found herself suddenly in charge of a troop of eighteen girls. She didn't hesitate. She just did it — no questions asked. That's the kind of quiet leadership her co-leader calls a superpower.
And speaking of superpowers: at a cookie booth, when a hearing-impaired customer struggled to communicate with the girls, Chelsey stepped in and started signing fluently. Nobody in the troop had known she could do that! It turned into a beautiful moment for everyone — and it sparked a whole new round of programming about the five senses.
Chelsey is a food service professional by trade, and she brings that expertise straight into Girl Scouting — teaching girls to safely handle a knife, running a commercial kitchen at camp like an absolute pro, keeping everyone safe while they learn to cook. She's also the troop's unofficial photographer, capturing every moment so she can build memory books for the girls when they bridge — and next year, she's teaching them to do it themselves as they earn their digital photography badge.
Chelsey would like to remind everyone that, “Leadership isn't about having all the answers; it's about being willing to figure things out right alongside the girls and showing them that it's okay to try, stumble, and try again.”
Ashley Christensen - Ashley Christensen's Girl Scout story starts more than a decade ago, long before she had a daughter of her own. Back then, she stepped up simply because a troop needed a second leader, and she believed every girl deserved that experience.
Years later, Ashley became a mom, and she knew right away she wanted her own daughter to have what she'd helped give so many other girls. So, right at the tail end of COVID she stepped up to lead a troop of any age, any level. Different grades, different needs, all in one room. She has led it ever since.
Ashley makes the multi age troop work by having her older girls mentor the younger ones, while still getting mentored themselves — everybody teaching, everybody learning, all at once.
Some of her troop's most memorable moments came from Ashley's gift for turning community need into hands-on learning. When state park staffing ran thin, she brought her girls to Wyalusing State Park to help ready the campsites for the season — raking, clearing, learning about the trees and wildlife around them, straight from park staff themselves.
And every year, Ashley leads her troop in "Elves for Elders" with the local ADRC. The Girl Scouts receive a real wish list from a local elder who might not otherwise get holiday gifts. They build a budget. They shop. They deliver everything from toilet paper to a radio — learning, in the most concrete way possible, what it means to notice someone else's need and do something about it.
Entrepreneurship
Briana Allen - Every cookie season needs someone who can hold the whole thing together when it matters most, and this year in SU17, that someone was Briana Allen.
Briana stepped into the role of cookie Product Program Lead exactly when her service unit needed her, and she carried both new and returning troops through the entire season — from the very first cookie shuffle all the way to the final reward count.
But it's the story behind one particular order that captures who Briana really is. A fellow volunteer needed a cookie cupboard order placed and delivered in the midst of an enormous personal loss — right after her own mother had passed away. Without hesitation, Briana ordered the cookies, drove them over, and made sure they got into the hands of the volunteers who needed them. In her nominator's own words: "She saved me that day."
That's the kind of entrepreneurship this award is built to celebrate — not just competence with numbers and logistics, but the instinct to show up for people when it counts most. Briana made this year's cookie season "a bright spot for everyone," one flawless handoff at a time in a community focused and engaged in supporting the next generation..
Dana Gasser - Dana Gasser took on the role of Cookie Coordinator for Troop 7027 this year — her very first season in the job — and turned it into a masterclass in showing up for people.
Troop 7027 is a Daisy troop with members scattered across three different cities, Dana made sure every single Girl Scout, no matter where they lived, had a real chance to work a cookie booth in their own community. One nominator put it simply: "Dana went above and beyond this past cookie season by ensuring all of our troop members had the opportunity to participate in cookie booths in their communities... her commitment to being available to setup and close any and all booths did not go unnoticed."
Dana didn't just manage logistics — she made the season fun. She found ways to keep her youngest Daisies engaged in the process itself, having them color their own customer order and delivery forms so cookie season felt like something they owned, not just something happening around them. Along the way, as a first-time cookie lead, Dana leaned on experienced mentors and troop parents with plenty of questions, adapted quickly, and kept inventory and communication running smoothly through a genuinely busy season.
As one fellow troop parent described it, Dana "put in lots of miles, time, and energy into a successful cookie season," bringing a thoughtful, organized, and supportive presence to every step.
Amateur
Ellise Tallard - Ellise Tallard became a first-year troop leader the same year her own daughter joined Girl Scouts — and immediately took on one of the most demanding jobs in the entire program: running her brand-new troop's very first cookie season.
The troop was completely new to cookie sales, with no established systems and no returning families to lean on for institutional memory. Ellise built it all herself. She handled the ordering, coordinated the booth schedule, stored and organized inventory out of her own home, and spent countless hours making sure every family understood the process. Her nominator put it simply: "her organization and commitment helped the troop have a highly successful cookie season in their very first year participating."
And cookies were just one piece of it. Ellise also ran troop meetings, building a welcoming and genuinely fun space for a brand-new group of Girl Scouts and their families who were still figuring out what this whole Girl Scout thing was all about. Her nominator credited her willingness "to take initiative, solve problems, and devote so much personal time" with helping build real confidence and excitement for new Girl Scout families right from the start.
Ellise is absolutely achieving her goal of providing a Girl Scout experience to her daughter’s troop that would make her former leaders quite proud!
Rebekah Grotelueschen - Rebekah Grotelueschen, Beki, leads Watertown's Daisy Troop 7754 with a rare kind of steadiness.
Her nominator described her plainly: "Beki is an incredible human, leader, friend, and volunteer. She is patient and kind and leads our Daisy Troop with grace and love."
As a newer leader taking on the youngest age group in Girl Scouting, Beki has quickly become the kind of grounded, joyful presence that sets the tone for a young Girl Scout's very first experiences in the program — the kind of experiences they'll remember for years to come.
Beki acknowledges that “awards like these reflect our incredible troop families, co-leaders, and community partners who show up to support our scouts every step of the way. They remind us that building an encouraging space for young leaders creates a ripple effect that touches our whole community. Leadership isn't about having all the answers. It’s about creating an environment where curiosity is celebrated, and mistakes are just part of the learning process. Showing up authentically and modeling resilience for younger people teaches them far more than any lesson plan ever could.” Thank you for those wise words, Beki.
Development
Eve Christoffersen - Eve Christoffersen has led Troop 8117 in Waunakee since her Girl Scouts were in kindergarten. This fall, they're entering high school. Eve has spent nearly a decade with the same group of young people, watching them grow from five-year-olds into teenagers tackling some of the program's biggest milestones.
Eve guided her troop through the Bronze Award, helping them organize their thinking and turn an idea into an actual, completed project. More recently, she's led them into Silver Award territory — the next big leap in independence and impact for a Girl Scout ready for more responsibility.
Through all of it, Eve has also served as her troop's cookie mom, managing every piece of the sale — the behind-the-scenes logistics that make the fun parts possible. But her nominator was careful to point out what really sets Eve apart: she "keeps the focus entirely on the girls' growth and teamwork." She knows that kids that have fun and stay engaged are more willing to continue to work on badges and higher awards. Her dedication doesn't just keep a troop running. It's what pushes older Girl Scouts past their comfort zones so they can discover exactly what they're capable of.
Kat O’Callaghan - Twelve years. That's how long Kat O'Callaghan has poured her time and energy into leading not one, but two Girl Scout troops in Madison — Troops 1174 and 8140.
Here's the part that really says everything about Kat: her own daughter is no longer in Girl Scouts. And she's still here. She continues to lead an Ambassador troop of older Girl Scouts purely because she believes in what it gives them — a place to keep growing into confident young adults, long after her personal reason for being in the room has changed.
When the pandemic hit and in-person meetings weren't possible, Kat adjusted, moved meetings to Zoom, and kept finding ways to give her older Girl Scouts a sense of normalcy during one of the hardest stretches most of them had ever faced. That kind of adaptability — keeping a program alive and meaningful through real disruption — is exactly the steady, upper-level leadership this award is meant to honor.
As her nominator put it, "an award isn't enough to show appreciation for all her years of service" — but tonight, we get to try. Twelve years, two troops, and a commitment that has clearly never wavered.
Emeritus
Laurel Holmquist - Laurel Holmquist is 80 years old. Every single fall and spring, when Service Unit 12 holds its overnight weekend events, Laurel makes sure her calendar is clear so she can run a program station — because as one nominator put it, simply, she is "FAITHFUL."
Running a program station at a Girl Scout event takes real preparation. Last year, SU12 ran a "think like a programmer" journey, and Laurel had to first teach herself how binary numbers work before she could teach anyone else. She sets a high bar for herself every time, purely so the Girl Scouts in front of her get a great experience.
One nominator described the difference between a self-led station, where engagement can be hit or miss, and a Laurel-led station: "when Laurel runs a station, she explains things very thoroughly, and you get her full attention while you're there." Another remembered watching her lead a nature painting activity, where the young artists "expressed themselves in such unique ways thanks to Laurel's leadership and guidance."
Laurel is a former educator, and it shows in everything she does — she has a gift for explaining things so Girl Scouts of every age can follow along, and a warmth that makes every single one of them feel seen. She's still there anyway. As one nominator wrote, "we are grateful to have Laurel as a part of our community, even after all of her children and grandchildren are through!"
Girl Scouts has always been an important part of her life. In fact, she still gets together regularly with her fellow troop leaders from the 70's and 80's to reminisce and share life updates.
Rising Star
Kerry Cook - Kerry Cook already had a full Girl Scout story behind her — she led her own daughter through the program years ago. When she stepped away for a while and then came back to support her granddaughters, nobody would have blamed her for easing back in slowly.
She did the opposite.
Kerry noticed that the Wisconsin Dells area didn't have a Product Program Lead, and she said yes to filling that gap — even though she'd only just returned to Girl Scouting after years away. She took on the Product Program Lead role for both cookies and the Badgerland Fall Fundraiser. As her nominator put it, Kerry "was not returning quietly or cautiously. She came back with energy, commitment, and a willingness to take on meaningful challenges."
Kerry also stepped into her Service Unit team, bringing representation from the Wisconsin Dells area that, in her nominator's words, "had been missing for many years." Her nominator described the team as "already small but mighty" — and Kerry's arrival made it stronger, adding practical community knowledge and a genuine desire to grow Girl Scouting locally.
Ashley Herricks - Ashley Herricks leads a troop in Cashton, a small rural community — and somehow makes that troop feel like it has access to everything a much bigger city troop would.
Nearly every month, Ashley takes her Girl Scouts beyond Cashton to plug into council and regional events. In just the past year, her troop has been to a CyberSecurity event, the Hidden Trails Corn Maze, I Love State Parks Day, a Northern Region pool party, La Crosse STEAM, and a La Crosse Loggers baseball game. Her nominator called that level of engagement, for a small rural troop, "remarkable" — and noted it happens because Ashley makes it happen, month after month.
Ashley also has a gift for stretching every outing further than it looks. During I Love State Parks Day, she wove in work on six additional badges at once, turning a single field trip into a multi-badge win for her troop.
But Ashley's troop doesn't just go out into the world — they give back to Cashton, too. They've volunteered at the Monroe County Dairy Breakfast, served the community Thanksgiving dinner, hosted the Easter Egg Scramble (stuffing 2,000 eggs for it!), marched in the Fall Fest parade, and donated Cookie Share cookies to both the Sticky Faith program and the Cashton Food Pantry. This year, Ashley also took on Fall Product Mom and Cookie Mom duties — all while leading a bilingual troop, making sure every family, in either language, feels fully informed and included.
Her nominator summed it up perfectly: "Ashley doesn't just run a troop, she builds an experience that is adventurous, community-minded, and full of possibility."
SU Superhero
Cathy Arndt - Before Cathy Arndt stepped into her role, Service Unit 7 was missing something important: consistent programming, and real opportunities for Girl Scouts and leaders across the community to come together. Cathy saw that gap, and created something vibrant and lasting.
Most recently, Cathy planned and ran two full camp weekends: one at Camp Brandenburg and one at Camp Ehawee.
One activity from the fall weekend had her Girl Scouts using string to physically map out cookie delivery routes, following real-world rules the whole way — crossing only at corners, staying on sidewalks, thinking about efficiency. Then they measured their string to see who'd found the smartest path. It was safety awareness and problem-solving disguised as a genuinely fun outdoor game, and the excitement from the Girl Scouts was, in her nominator's words, "unmistakable."
In the spring, Cathy coordinated a full ropes course weekend at Camp Ehawee, giving her Girl Scouts a chance to push themselves physically and emotionally. As her nominator described it, "girls cheered each other on, celebrated accomplishments, and built one another's confidence... the pride, encouragement, and camaraderie were evident in every smile and high five."
To this day, Cathy is still friends with people from her troop growing up, and she enjoys using the skills she learned as a youth Girl Scout to provide the same opportunities to today’s members. She has built a genuine culture of belonging in SU7 — one her nominator called simply "a gift to our community."
Julia Detert - Julia Detert - PhD in behavioral neuroscience and a kidney donor - was one of the first people to raise her hand to help when Service Unit 24 needed to be rebuilt from the ground up.
For most of the past two years, the Service Unit 24 team has stayed small — really, it's been Julia and her fellow volunteer Kathy carrying the weight of restoring service unit activity across the Portage, Lodi, and Pardeeville area.
Service Unit 24 moved from planning one event at a time to a sustainable, annual-events model. Working alongside Kathy, she designed events to become lasting annual traditions for the service unit, with room to grow as more volunteers and families get involved.
Julia has also worked to grow the Service Unit team itself, recently inviting additional adult volunteers from her own troop to attend service unit meetings, help with event planning, and start building the next layer of local capacity. That kind of leadership doesn't just get today's to-do list done — it builds the foundation for whoever comes next.
Julia's one hope is that by being involved, she is providing youth with the opportunity to get our of their comfort zones in a safe space. Her dedication and reliability are helping rebuild something real for Girl Scouts and volunteers across the Portage-Lodi-Pardeeville area, creating a far more sustainable path forward for Service Unit 24.
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Adult Recognition and Awards Nomination for the 2027 On My Honor Celebration. Nominations close July 15, 2027.
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