Ella Randolph (Class of 2024) has served as a member of American Heritage Girls Inc. for the last 9 years. This year, Ella earned the Stars & Stripes Award, the highest recognition awarded by the American Heritage Girls Inc. She is a member of Perimeter Church’s Troop GA0317 where she is the first to receive such an award. 

American Heritage Girls Inc. is a Christian scouting organization that promotes character development for young women across the nation. Available to young girls from ages 5-18, it creates a scouting environment rooted in Biblical principles that promotes involvement for the whole family. 

Recipients of the Stars and Stripes Award, like Ella, work extremely hard to meet certain requirements for this award which include:

-Receiving the Abigail Adams Level Award
-Receiving 16 required Stars and Stripes Award Badges 
-A minimum requirement of holding a leadership position for six months
-A 100+ hour service project where the individual plans, develops and provides leadership for the project
-Creating a Spiritual Walk Essay along with an AHG Resume 
-Obtaining three or more letters of Reference
-Board Review Approval

For her service project, Ella chose to serve at a place very close to her heart: her family’s church. The Randolph family has attended Embry Hills Church of Christ since 2011, and Ella began leading Vacation Bible School when she was in fifth grade. In addition to leading classes and skits, Ella assisted in the set up and clean up of VBS where a frustration amongst members began to arise. Seeing a need to reduce stress in times of set up and clean up, Ella created a project of refurbishing and reorganizing the church’s basement storage rooms. Tasks for this project included inventory, organization, restocking, relabeling, the building of multi-purpose shelves and a PVC storage system, new flooring, pest abatement and dehumidification. Ella shared her reasoning for leading this project, “I chose this project because I noticed a need within my congregation a few years ago. When it came time for Embry Hills to host a large event like a workshop or an annual Vacation Bible School, it was difficult for leaders and teachers to find the supplies, costumes, large sets and small props that they needed. My plan is to organize and restock the basement area, so that the stress of looking for items needed for events is greatly reduced.” 

Ella has been a dedicated member of the American Heritage Girls Inc. Acting as Squad Leader, Troop Announcement Leader, and Flag Ceremony Leader, she is an active participant. She earned a variety of awards leading up to this final recognition such as the Giving Servant Award from Members of the Churches of Christ for Scouting and the President’s Volunteer Service Award in 2023 and 2024.

In addition to her time as a member of Troop GA0317, Ella acted as the Varsity Volleyball Team Manager and an active member of the Service Committee, Beta Club, National Honor Society and Honduras Mission trip team at GAC. As a recent graduate, Ella plans to attend Samford University in the fall where she will pursue a career in Nursing.