Gold Award for a shining Scout
Despite her own suffering and her struggle with cancer, Amanda Emelie Bunch never stopped thinking about others.
As she lay weak in the hospital last year, the teen remained focused on her service projects – including collecting small gifts for other oncology patients at Sacred Heart Children’s Hospital.
As a cancer patient from the time she was 11, Bunch knew how much these small trinkets meant to the children in treatment. So as a longtime Girl Scout, she decided to gather donations for these children as part of her work toward a Gold Award, the highest honor in Girl Scouting.
But Bunch didn’t live long enough to finish her project. She died four months ago, at the age of 18.
On Saturday, the Girl Scouts Inland Empire Council gave her parents the Gold Award that Bunch would have earned had she survived. It was an emotional moment for the dozens of people who attended the ceremony, especially for Bunch’s parents, who continue to grieve for their only child.
“She had so much to offer the world,” said Connie Bunch, who, along with others in the crowd, wore a button with a photograph of Amanda’s smiling face.
Amanda Bunch was in the third grade when she joined the scouts. She loved going to camp, earning badges, and hanging out with other girls. But she especially enjoyed the service projects, including handing out food at the Mead Food Bank, according to her mother.
“She loved Girl Scouts and working with little kids,” said Connie Bunch. “A big part of Girl Scouts was serving other people.”
Even when she was sick in the hospital, Amanda Bunch still made the effort to sell Girl Scout cookies, said her father, Bill. Despite the severe pain she suffered and the fact that she spent most of her time last year in a hospital bed, Amanda still sold 400 boxes of cookies, he recalled with a smile.
“She really epitomized the (Girl Scout) motto of courageous and strong,” Girl Scout Program Director Stacie Davis told the audience, who gave Connie and Bill Bunch a standing ovation.
During her years in Girl Scouts, Amanda Bunch had performed more than 500 hours of community service, according to Davis.
Besides Amanda Bunch, the Girl Scouts Inland Empire Council also honored three other Spokane teens who earned Gold Awards:
“Holley Ritz, a junior at North Central High School, who fulfilled her community service requirement by serving as director of Vacation Bible School last summer for Audubon Park United Methodist Church.
“Anna Marie Schaefer, a junior at Lewis and Clark High School, who collected 276 knitted and handmade hats that were distributed through St. Margaret’s Shelter, Anna Ogden Hall and the Vanessa Behan Crisis Nursery.
“ April McDonough, now a freshman at Eastern Washington University, whose project involved bringing together Cheney community members and young people with disabilities for an afternoon of bowling at Cheney Lanes.
The Gold Award is of the same caliber as the Boy Scout’s Eagle Scout Award. Girls who receive the honor spend at least 65 hours working on a leadership service project, in addition to 70 hours of prerequisites. They also have to involve the community in their projects.
Every year, the award is bestowed to only two or three girls in the region.
“This means a lot to us,” said Connie Bunch. “It’s quite an honor.”
Through her work with Girl Scouts and her experience battling cancer, Amanda Bunch grew up to become a compassionate, hardworking and caring young woman, her parents said.
She had been sick a lot – from a brain tumor, a collapsed lung, the leukemia that she was diagnosed with about a year before her death – but she never stopped trying, her father said. At Mead High School, she was a member of the National Honor Society and played flute in the symphony and marching bands. She was an active volunteer and member of Inland Northwest Candlelighters, an organization dedicated to children with cancer and their families.
When she learned that the stem-cell transplant she received last year had failed and that she didn’t have long to live, Amanda Bunch made a to-do list that included visiting her friends and favorite teachers to thank them for being a part of her life.
Amanda Bunch would’ve graduated from high school this spring. Her dream was to become a pediatric nurse and work with children, according to her family.
“She inspired a lot of people,” said Bill Bunch. “We were lucky to have her with us for 18 years.”