Marisol Garcia started off with the goal of building a climbing wall to complete the requirements for her Girl Scout Gold Award. In the end she has built a special monument that will remind the Bethel community of what hard work and determination can accomplish. Fifth grader, Emma Deaver, commented, “I think the climbing wall is a great addition to our school for kids for years to come.”

On Friday, November 21st, a recognition celebration was held to honor Marisol’s completion of the climbing wall for the students of Bethel Elementary. In attendance were several of the sponsors that helped make Marisol’s dream a reality; Waynesville Kiwanis Club, Lisa Ferguson from Edward Jones, Dr. Garrett for Haywood County Schools, School Board Member Bobby Rogers, and Haywood County Schools Foundation’s Chair, Jenny Wood, were also present to show support for this amazing accomplishment.

Troupe Leader, Marcia Tate, spoke a few words about the Girl Scout Gold Award and Marisol’s experience with building the wall. The Gold Award stands for excellence and leadership and is the highest award in scouting. Marisol is the sixth Girl Scout to achieve this award in Tate’s twenty-two years as a troupe leader. The award requires eighty hours of work and Marisol logged 140.25 hours of work on the climbing wall. Tate went on to explain that the project had to be long lasting and also involve community partners. Tate commented that, “Marisol displayed great dedication, perseverance, and leadership in her fulfillment of the Girl Scout mission: to make the world a better place.”

Cyndi Blankenship, Bethel’s Physical Education specialist, also spoke to the health benefits of the wall for the students of Bethel. Locomotor skills, balance, and agility were a few of the skills mentioned in her speech. Blankenship also mentioned the cognitive aspects that will be touched upon with the wall as well. She commented, “Moving across this wall will increase focus, concentration, visualization and mental imaging.” There are cardiovascular fitness benefits while increasing coordination and flexibility. The students will learn self-confidence, patience, courage, and self-control. The skills learned on this climbing wall can lead to a life-time activity of rock climbing. Fifth grader, Chase Boswell, is looking forward to getting on the climbing wall to, “improve my physical and mental strength.” Even though the fifth graders will only enjoy the climbing wall for one year, they are still feeling very lucky to have it at their school.