A Billings girl has achieved the highest honor for a Girl Scout, the Gold Award.
Nationwide, up to about to six percent of Girl Scouts earn the award.
We had a chance to talk with the first Gold Award Girl Scout in Billings since 2017.
A martial arts instructor taught self defense in a video Kendall Stokes produced for her Gold Award.
"My project was called The Essential PEDI, which stands for protect, educate, defend and inspire," Stokes said. "And it was based on the issue of sexual assault and abuse among young women around the world."
Stokes graduated this year from Sky View High School and girls pursue the gold award while they're in high school.
"I learned to be brave with it because this is a difficult subject for some people and I just kind of took steps to be a leader and help other girls," said Stokes.
In her research for The Essential PEDI, she learned that women and men can be victims.
"It is scary at the event when I was presenting I was reading off some statistics and I actually kind of started crying a little bit because it's really sad how common it is," she said.
The Girl Scouts state the Gold Award is earned by girls who demonstrate extraordinary leadership in developing sustainable solutions.
"Pretty cool to say that I'm proud to say that I'm a Gold Award Girl Scout," said Stokes.
Kendall spent about 95 hours on the project. And drew some inspiration from her own family.
"My brother got the Eagle Scout award and so I got kind of competitive and decided I wanted the Gold Award," said Stokes.
And Kendall Stokes expects the award will help her as she pursues a career.
"My first grade teacher she really inspired me to become a teacher and I really, really enjoyed spending time with little kids," said Stokes. "And I taught in a preschool last year and that was that's what sent me on. I said, Yep, I want to be a teacher."
