Paso Girl Scout earns national award for community work

Paso Robles

Girl Scout Justine Johnson-Yurchak, 18, from Paso Robles Troop 40970, was inspired to build a stage for musical performances at Atascadero United Methodist Church for her Gold Award project, which she earned this year.

Earning the national Gold Award requires spending at least 80 hours planning and implementing a challenging, large-scale project that is innovative, engages others and has a lasting impact on the community. Johnson-Yurchak got the idea to convert a storage room at her church into a stage after realizing her church’s youth group had no place to perform.

She is a freshman at UC Santa Barbara. She is the daughter of Dorwyne Johnson and Stephanie Yurchak.

Grover Beach

Coastal Dance and Music Academy has received a $2,000 grant for the Foundation for the Performing Arts Center’s Clifton Swanson PAX community access fund.

This grant was used toward CDMA’s annual studio showcase, “Can’t Stop The Feelin’,” which featured all of the academy’s students and members of nonprofit Coastal Performing Arts Foundation, including Coastal Youth Chamber Ballet, Coastal Youth Theater and the Beyond Boundaries program for children with special needs. The event, at the Performing Arts Center at Cal Poly, featured performers who ranged in age from 2 years to adult.

For more information on the foundation, call 805-541-5401 or visit www.fpacslo.org.

This story was originally published November 28, 2017 at 2:28 PM with the headline "Paso Girl Scout earns national award for community work."