Mehlville High School senior Cedar Fitzpatrick has achieved what few others have: she has earned both a Girl Scout Gold Award and an Eagle Scout Award, the top honors for each group.
“I wasn’t actually originally planning on doing it,” Fitzpatrick said of the Gold Award. “I joined Boy Scouts in middle school, and I got my Eagle Scout through Boy Scouts. And then I just kind of realized, if I can get both, why not do it?”
Fitzpatrick has been involved with Girl Scouts since she was in preschool. In 2018, Boy Scouts of America — now officially known as Scouting America — began allowing girls to join, and Fitzpatrick’s younger sisters did just that. Though she was originally hesitant to do the same, Fitzpatrick’s perspective changed the summer before her eighth-grade year.
“At first I was kind of like, ‘Oh, no, I don’t want to. Why would I do that? I’m in Girl Scouts.’ But then (my sisters) went to their first summer camp,” Fitzpatrick said. “My parents and I went to drop them off … and I saw how fun it was and all the cool things they could do. So that’s actually when I decided to join.”
She emphasized that sharing the experience with her sisters allowed the three to bond.
Being a member of both groups and earning the top honors for each is no easy task. To obtain Eagle Scout status, Fitzpatrick worked for two years, acquiring over 20 merit badges and completing various advancement requirements.
“You have to know how to tie certain knots, you have to know how to do different things with first aid. You have to get community service hours as well. The last step is doing the Eagle project,” Fitzpatrick said.
For her Eagle Scout project, Fitzpatrick worked with the St. Louis VA Medical Center, Jefferson Barracks Division. She obtained Eagle Scout status in May 2024.
“They have a kayaking program to help with rehab for the veterans. They had a need for some sort of cart that they could store kayaking paddles, life vests and other miscellaneous kayaking items on that was sort of easy to transport … while also being sustainable enough to last a long time in that pool environment,” she explained.
More recently, Fitzpatrick decided to go for the Girl Scout Gold Award. Inspired by her interest in pursuing a career in the healthcare field, she designed and built a permanent 8-by-16-foot wooden shade structure at Camp Cedarledge following the removal of dead trees that left the area with limited shade. The process began in October 2025 and wrapped up this September, 11 months later. Young Girl Scouts attending the camp over the summer had the opportunity to watch the project come to life, making the experience that much more meaningful.
“I’m interested in public health, so that kind of made me want to do something that would sort of help public health and safety, which is why I went with the sun safety idea,” Fitzpatrick said.
With her high school days dwindling, Fitzpatrick is looking toward the future, with plans to pursue a degree in nursing from Missouri State University. Scouting, however, will forever impact her life.
“I would say the biggest thing is definitely leadership and learning how to learn, learning how to take criticism, learning how to communicate with people,” she said of lessons learned from the programs. “Also self-reflection and self-accountability.”
