Victoria Platcek, a high school senior who lives in Two Harbors, is organizing a life-saving Gold Award project.

The Girl Scouts’ Gold Award could be compared to the Boy Scouts’ Eagle Scout honor.

“I’ve been thinking about my Gold Award since – well, I started the Bronze Award in 4th grade,” Platcek said.

She is now in her 12th year in Girl Scouts, and she’s been working toward her Gold Award since her freshman year.

“I had a lot of people in my family who were required CPR for their job, but their job didn’t offer an avenue to get CPR-certified,” she said.

A Lake County Rescue Squad member offered to give classes, but they discovered the equipment they had for training was very outdated.

“I raised just around $13,000,” Platcek said. “And with that, I was able to purchase four adult mannequins, four infant mannequins, four training AEDs, and four actual AEDs for the Rescue Squad to use on their calls.”

She learned a lot about grant writing through that process. And she’s not done yet. The next step is to offer regular CPR certification classes, hopefully four a year.

“Anybody needs to know CPR. It’s a life-saving skill,” Platcek said. “Even if you only remember the compressions part and you don’t remember how to do the breaths, that could be the difference between life and death.”

She’s not yet certified herself but plans to take the first class with some fellow Girl Scouts. She suggested keeping an eye on the Lake County Rescue Squad Facebook page for announcements about future classes.