Bella Mason of Knoxville often noticed people in need at a bus stop near her church. She found a way to help them by building a Blessing Box filled with food and other resources, then orchestrated ways to keep the box going by empowering other groups in her church community. Bella earned a prestigious Girl Scout Gold Award in 2025 for her Bearden Blessing project.

Gold Award Girl Scouts are rock stars, role models and real-life heroes who address issues they’re passionate about by using everything they’ve learned as a Girl Scout to solve an issue. They plan and implement projects that produce lasting change in the community and beyond. It is the Girl Scouts’ highest honor.

“When I drive home from school, I pass by a blessing box at another church,” Bella shares. “I’ve always wondered what it was, and one day, I stopped to see. After looking it over, I did some research on my own and thought, ‘Maybe I could build one of these!’ ” Bella then went to work to find instructions, obtain materials, get support, build and install a large resource box at her church.

After initially stocking the pantry, she established guidelines for its ongoing operation and enlisted different church groups to sponsor supplies for the box each month. She recruited the knitting ministry to donate handmade items such as blankets and scarves. She also worked with the church’s special needs ministry to have those adults manage the pantry.

She says, “My favorite part of the project was building it because no one really saw my vision and it was so satisfying to see it all come together. Obviously, it is very satisfying to see people using the box. It makes me so proud to know that something I did has an impact on other people!”

Bella enlisted the help of her dad, who went with her to buy all of the project materials, including almost 50 pieces of wood, and deferred to her when the store workers had questions about the project. Then, they recruited several of his friends to help lift the heavy box up onto the posts to install it.

Bella shares great insight gained from the experience: “I learned that I am more capable than I previously thought.”

She has fond memories of her earlier years in Girl Scouts, especially when her troop got to camp in tents after previously only camping in cabins. “The tents were super fun,” she recalls. “We had so much fun setting up our tents, our sleeping bags and even cooking our meals over a fire. The girls were leading it, not the leaders, so we all felt really mature and cool. My friends and I still talk about that fun time.”  

Bella recently graduated from West High School and has plans to attend The University of Tennessee to study electrical engineering. In her free time, she loves to spend time with her family and friends, read, spend time outside and get to know new people and things.

Congratulations, Bella! Visit girlscoutcsa.org to learn more.