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Child's play turned into a lifelong commitment to community service for eight area young women who earned the Girl Scout Gold Award this year.

Four of the teenagers stood on the Woodfield Elementary School playground last month and recited the Girl Scout Pledge they learned a long time ago.

When they joined Girl Scouts as Daisies or Brownies, few of the girls had any idea they would climb so high in Scouting. Although they are members of different senior troops, their paths led them to Girl Scouting's highest honor.

Erin Maddox, 19, of Damascus said her mother and Girl Scout leader, Pam Hosimer, kept her focused on the gold.

"[She] always pushed me to do the gold, so I wanted the gold," Maddox said.

Katie Bush, 16, of Damascus was self-motivated.

"I always wanted my Gold Award because it's such a great accomplishment," she said.

Bush enjoys talking to people about earning the award, which she said most people do not know about.

"It opens up a lot of great opportunities, especially when you get older," she said. "You meet a lot of interesting women who went far with their careers."

The Gold Award is the Girl Scout equivalent of the Eagle Scout for Boy Scouts and is recognized as a sign of leadership.

"A big part of being a Girl Scout is being a leader and doing leadership things," said Cara Stouffer, 17, of Gaithersburg. "Doing that, you learn a lot about yourself, good and bad. You become a stronger individual."

The chance to win scholarships also helped motivate her to earn the Gold Award.

"In high school there's so much stuff you have to handle all the time," said Ashley Pitman, 17, of Damascus.

The Girl Scout troop offered stability, she said.

"It helps you keep who you are, not just fall into what everybody else is doing," said Dianne Strobel, 16, of Damascus.

Five of the teenagers are seniors at Damascus High School and two are juniors. Maddox graduated from the Poolesville High School magnet program in June and is a freshman at Stevenson University in Owings Mills.

Each girl chose a Gold Award project that reflects her interests.

Maddox's project reflected her interest in technology. She organized a technology fair at the Damascus Library.

Lauren Burroughs, 16, of Damascus and Bush were interested in dental hygiene, so Burroughs organized a dental health clinic at the Damascus Senior Center and Bush organized one for preschool children. They helped each other with their presentations and enjoyed being with seniors so much that they continue to volunteer weekly at the senior center.

Andrea Mobley's parents enjoy bicycling, so she knows a lot about bicycles. For her project, the Gaithersburg 17-year-old held a bicycle rodeo.

They are among the six Gold Award Scouts that are members of Troop 41, led by Karen Mobley and Stephanie Temme.

"It was our goal to try to get all the girls in our troop to earn the Gold Award," Temme said. "We worked as a troop to advise girls and assist them in finding a project that was feasible."

They also worked as a troop on completing requirements. Most involved activities to help them learn about leadership and themselves and how they can use the skills they learned in the future, she said.

Strobel arranged for donations of 200 baskets — and items and gift certificates to fill them — for soldiers recuperating at Walter Reed Army Medical Center.

Pitman decorated an unused room at the Stepping Stone family shelter in Rockville to make it appropriate for meetings and family therapy.

Katie Long, 17, of Damascus organized a Lyme disease awareness project.

With their Gold Awards behind them, their march through Scouting is coming to an end.

The girls plan to celebrate their last year in Girl Scouts with a camping trip this fall and a big trip, probably overseas, next summer.

They will fund their trip with – what else – proceeds from cookie sales over the past three years.