Mustang Girl Scout Receives Gold Award for Community Prom Closet

A Mustang teen is being recognized with the highest Girl Scout award for her impactful community service project that helps her peers look, and feel, their best.

The Gold Award is the highest honor a Girl Scout can receive, and among this year’s recipients in the metro is one teen who set out to make "the perfect prom" achievable for everyone.

“Prom is the biggest thing in high school,” Piper, an 11-year Girl Scout with the Girl Scouts of Western Oklahoma, said.

It's a night to remember, but it comes with a price tag. Tickets can be costly, and prom attire can be several hundred dollars, or more.

“Not everybody has that kind of money to just drop at any moment in time,” Piper said.

She decided this wasn't fair.

When it came time for her Gold Award project, she knew what she wanted to do.

“A prom attire closet,” Piper said.

Her project is a first-of-its-kind for Oklahoma.

“We made it look like it was a boutique. We did, like, the whole nine yards,” she said.

A Gold Award also requires dozens of hours of service dedicated to the project.

“I put out posters asking for donations from anybody in any kind of form, whether it was a dress, a suit, a shirt, shoes, whatever they could give,” Piper said.

She was able to collect 167 dresses, 3 full suits, 8 pairs of dress pants, 7 button up shirts and more assorted prom accessories.

Then she opened the closet to the community.

“Seeing the girls and the guys trying on outfits and dresses and suits and shoes and seeing their eyes light up was really nice,” Piper said.

She received her Gold Award for the project, but it was always about more than a gold pin, just like prom is about more than a pretty dress.

“This allowed them to butt to at least have a chance to have that moment to feel beautiful or handsome and feel like they are like the prettiest person in the world,” Piper said.

Piper’s closet provided prom outfits to more than 50 teens this year and it will reopen each year even after Piper moves on from the Girl Scouts.

If you’d like to donate a dress, suit, shoes or accessories, email elliott3x2@gmail.com.