Lymon earns Girl Scout Gold Award

Jenetta Lymon has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award. CONTRIBUTED

MADISON COUNTY – Jenetta Lymon, a senior at Sparkman High School, has earned the Gold Award, the pinnacle of achievement in Girl Scouts.

To secure the award, Lymon worked on “Beautiful Minds,” a project to educate the community about learning disabilities. She focused her study on awareness about dyslexia, inspired by her brother Joshua who has been diagnosed with dyslexia.

“My family found out when he was about seven. It was very difficult to watch him struggle in certain areas of his school work throughout the years,” she said. “My mother had a hard time finding resources to help him as a student and to help herself as a parent of a student that was struggling with this disorder.”

As Jenetta considered her Gold Award subject, she wanted “to do something I knew would be beneficial to the community but was also dear to my heart.”

Lymon conducted various workshops in her community and recruited experts to talk with teachers and parents about the importance of offering programming for students with dyslexia and providing resources to those in need.

Assisting Lymon with the workshops was Dr. Denise Gibbs with the Scottish Rite Foundation of Alabama Learning Centers. “Jenetta’s project was so timely,” Gibbs said. “She assembled teachers, parents and community members to learn about the issue.”

“The State Board of Education worked on an amendment that now gives schools the ability to screen and provide services to children with dyslexia before it becomes an advanced learning disability,” Gibbs said.

Gibbs described Jenetta as a remarkable young woman. “I have no doubt the skills she has gained through Girl Scouting and used to complete this project will take her far in life,” Gibbs said.

To perpetuate her project, Lymon has added a Facebook page (Facebook/Beautiful Minds).

For more information about Girl Scouts of North-Central Alabama, call 800-734-4541 or visit girlscoutsnca.org.