2022 GSHH Gold Award Journal

Gold Award Girl Scouts Change the World

Gold Award Girl Scouts are change-makers. They have changed the world, changed their lives, and earned the most prestigious award in Girl Scouting.

To earn the Gold Award, a Girl Scout identifies an issue in their community, drafts a plan to address a root cause, and leads a team of volunteers to implement it. When the project is complete, the Gold Award Girl Scout and their team have made a sustainable impact on the world that continues to last beyond their involvement.

It’s a huge accomplishment that also impacts the Gold Award Girl Scout as a person. How they see the world—and how the world sees them—is forever changed. It’s also a credential that will be with them for the rest of their life; having the Girl Scout Gold Award on a high school transcript or resumé can make a Girl Scout stand out when it comes to college admissions, scholarship applications, internships, and job interviews.

Girl Scout Mission

Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.

Girl Scout Promise

Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.

On my honor, I will try:

Girl Scout Law

Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.

On my honor, I will try:

To serve God* and my country, To help people at all times, And to live by the Girl Scout Law.

I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, respect authority,

*Members may substitute for the word God in accordance with their own spiritual beliefs.

Girl Scouts Heart of the Hudson, Inc. Board of Directors

Officers:

Gale

Carol

Kim

Jolene Borell-Treasurer

Katherine

Helen

Members at Large:

Michael Bruno

Nicole Canada

Catherine Corbin

Christine Drasba

Lisa Gariolo

Donna Halperin

Christina Ho Michele Pollack-Rich

Anna May Wiede Jean Zappia

Girl Board Directors: Izabella Widulski

We Are Girl Scouts

Girl Scouts bring their dreams to life as they work together to build a better world. Through programs from coast to coast, Girl Scouts of all backgrounds and abilities can be unapologetically themselves as they discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges—whether they want to climb to the top of a tree or the top of their class, lace up their boots for a hike or advocate for climate justice, or make their first best friends. Backed by trusted adult volunteers, mentors, and millions of alums, Girl Scouts lead the way as they find their voices and make changes that affect the issues most important to them.

Thank You Gold Award Mentors!

Gold Award Mentors are the incredible volunteers who have been trained by our council to assist girls in becoming Gold Award Girl Scouts.

These mentors put forth a tremendous amount of time and dedication to guide and sup port Gold Award Girl Scouts. They attend monthly meetings, approve projects, act as a constant resource, answer questions, lend a hand, and ensure the Gold Award require ments for each project are fulfilled to GSUSA and Girl Scouts Heart of the Hudson stan dards.

It is their tireless work, long hours, open ears, and gentle guidance that help mold Gold Award Girl Scouts into strong, independent leaders who become courageous and optimistic world-changers. They show by example what it takes to make the world a better place.

Girl Scouts Heart of the Hudson cannot thank these volunteers enough for their commit ment, and hope that you will join us in extending your gratitude to all the Gold Award Mentors today and always, as we celebrate the 2021 Gold Award Girl Scouts.

Helping Eagles Soar: A Brief History of Girl Scouting’s Highest Award by Jean Havens, GSHH Museum

The highest girl award in Girl Scouting has changed its name often in the past 109 years. Interestingly, the 1913 handbook, How Girls Can Help their Country, listed a British Girl Guide award, the Silver Fish, as the highest award in Girl Scouting. However, no girl in the United States ever earned this recognition.

Using the Silver Fish award as a model, Juliette Low developed the first official highest award for American Girl Scouts, the Golden Eaglet of Merit, in 1916. To earn this award, known simply as the Golden Eaglet, a girl had to complete fourteen proficiency badges from a list of seventeen. The award came with a red, white, and blue ribbon. Fewer than 50 Girl Scouts earned this award before it was redesigned in 1919.

The first five Golden Eaglet awards were presented to girls at the National Girl Scout convention and rally in Washington, DC on May 4, 1919. These awards were red, white, and blue ribbons that served as substitutes for the medals which were only in the production stage at that point. Later that year, the actual gold-filled medal were made available nationwide. The Golden Eaglet medal was designed by sculptor Laura Fardin-Fraser who also designed the doors for the West Point Library. In 1930, the gold-filled medals were replaced by 10K gold pins and ultimately, between 1918 and 1939, 10,658 Golden Eaglets were presented to outstanding Girl Scouts throughout the country.

Proud of the scope of this inaugural award, Juliette Low wrote in 1923: “The five requirements for winning the Golden Eaglet are character, health, handicraft, happiness, and service, and that other will expect to find in our Golden Eaglets a perfect specimen of girlhood: mentally, morally, and physically.”

Introduced as an arc-shaped patch embroidered in gold thread, the Curved Bar Award succeeded the Golden Eaglet as the highest girl award in 1940. It was presented to Intermediate Girl Scouts who had attained First Class rank and was worn just above the First Class emblem. In the fall of 1947, the patch was replaced by a Curved Bar pin. Its design incorporated the First Class pin resting on a curved bar, and it was gold-plated and enameled in red and green. The Curved Bar rank continued until 1963 when the national Girl Scout program was divided into four age levels: Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes, and Seniors. At that time, the requirements for achieving First Class were determined to be challenging enough to equal those for Curved Bar, so First Class became the highest award in Girl Scouting and remained so from 1963 through 1980.

From 1963 to 1977, to achieve the First Class recognition a girl had to complete the four Challenges present ed by the Cadette-level program: the Challenge of Social Dependability, the Challenge of Emergency Pre paredness, the Challenge of Active Citizenship, and the Challenge of the Girl Scout Promise. She also had to complete a badge in each of the following areas: arts, home, citizenship, out-of-doors, health and safety, and international friendship. Additional Challenges were introduced in 1972, offering even more options for girls striving to attain First Class.

The Girl Scout Gold Award was introduced in 1980 as the highest award for Senior Girl Scouts. The award’s requirements involved the completion on a combination of interest, leadership, career exploration, and service projects. It also required girls to demonstrate ability and skill in: goal setting, planning, putting values into action, and relating to the community. Although requirements have been changed and modified through the years since its introduction, the Gold Award remains the highest recognition for Girl Scouts today.

Award Recipients

Nicole Ahearne Stony Point Service Unit

Early Intervention Parent Resource Informational Card

With the Rockland County Health Department, Nicole came up with recreational activity cards to distribute amongst the families within the Local Early Intervention Coordinat ing Council (LEICC). These cards are primarily targeted to families that have children with disabilities and will provide them with a resource that will benefit them.

Julianna Aiello Somers Service Unit

Take the Trail

Project Take the Trail was designed to create safer trails at Rock Hill Camp. The GOAT trail, one of the camp’s most used trails, received handmade trail markers and was cleared of all obstructions. Additionally, Julianna created a new trail map to reflect all Rock Hill trails. Through You Tube, this project reached Girl Scouts near and far while teaching helpful skills like first aid and map orienteering. The channel also included a project video vlog to track the progress of the project. Take the Trail is dedicated to the memory of her dad, Robert. He was her biggest supporter through the process, her biggest memory is when he would come out to help her with all of the manual labor while actively fighting advanced stages of gastric cancer.

Lauren Aprahamian Germonds Service Unit

Project GROW - Growing Resources, Optimizing our World

Project GROW is geared toward bringing vegetables to local food pantries. The goal of the project was to teach them how to grow their own vegetables at home. Lauren expand ed her audience to school age children to spark interest in healthy eating. Along with healthy eating, she encouraged daily physical activity and exercise. She joined Garden of Hope, a community garden, where she can contribute to the plants at Good Samaritan Hospital and learned a lot about planting skills.

Aisha Bhakta

Lakeland East Service Unit

I Am...

The project “I Am...” is focused on addressing the issues of distorted self-image and decreased self-worth that stems from unrealistic expectations of beauty in the media, and the increased pressure to change oneself to “fit in,” and acheive the so-called “ideal” body type. Aisha taught many workshops to reach her audience and created a social media account to reach the masses, as well as building a partner ship with Kannada Koota New York; a company who has pledged to disseminate her project to their youth.

Molly Bochner Scarsdale/Edgemont Service Unit

Take a Chance and Dance

The project “Take a Chance and Dance” focused on the en couragement for the love of dance and exercise, and helped participants explore different styles of dance and move ment.

Bodkin

Nyack Service Unit

Women’s Health

The project “Women’s Health” is focused on educating young females on women’s health. Elizabeth saw a lack of education in schools, and took it upon herself to educate young females about their health. The goal is to promote research and knowledge. Her audience was young girls in schools and in Girl Scouts.

Daisy Bolger Ossining Service Unit

RBG Empowers

The project “RBG Empowers” showcases the issue of wom en’s continuous fight for equality and representation in their community. Daisy’s project will build on strength and efforts of advocates who have used their platforms to represent the Women’s Rights movement; mainly Ruth Bader Ginsburg. The goal is to highlight her works through this project and all the other advocates who have stepped forward in their efforts. Daisy plans to help young girls find their voice and stand up for their beliefs in their own lives.

Kaitlin Byrnes

Lakeland East Service Unit

Fire Safety for Teenagers and Seniors

The project “Fire Safety for Teens and Home Safety for Se niors” addresses the issue of home safety for senior citizens, and fire safety for teenagers. Kaitlin found that there is a rising risk for senior citizens at their homes when it comes to fire safety, especially for those living alone. The goal is to educate senior citizens and teenagers on how to properly check their smoke detectors, medical alert systems, and medical information lists that are easily accessible in case of emergencies.

Abigail Caridi North Salem Service Unit

Teens Together

Abigail raised awareness for teen stress identification and management through school and online resources.

Katrina Christopher Tappan Zee Service Unit

Tackle the Transition

Katrina’s project, “Tackle the Transition,” focuses on the stressful transition middle schoolers face when entering high school and even more so during COVID-19. Her goal was to create workshops to help students across the masses navigate their transitions along with the new school etti quette of COVID-19.

Jacqueline Davis

Ossining Service Unit

Awesome ends with me

Jacqueline’s Gold Award project addressed self-esteem and the idea of a positive body image. She wanted girls to increase their confidence levels and feel better about them selves. Her main goal was to help girls build positivity and improve their relationships with themselves. Her target au dience was girls of Junior and Cadette troops. She believes that if a girl learns to accept herself and others at a younger age she is more likely to continue doing so as she gets older.

Jenna DeMasi

North Salem Service Unit

Pet Food Pantry

Jenna started a Pet Food Pantry at the Community Center of Northern Westchester to help pet owners struggling to feed their pets and help pets stay in their homes and out of shelters. She asked for donations at her school and vet, and made an Amazon wishlist that she posted on social media which resulted in the collection of over 900 items of pet food for the pantry. For leadership, she partnered with her Home Economics teacher at her school and taught kids how to make home-made dog treats which were delivered to the pantry. The community center will continue the pet food pantry beyond Jenna’s involvement with the help of a local pet food store and community donations.

Olivia Dower New Rochelle Service Unit

What Do You Want to Say? Findingyour voice through theater and performance.

Olivia’s project included eight weeks of Zoom workshops and improvisational games at Crestwood Library during summer 2020, the first summer of the pandemic. Olivia wanted to create a Gold Award project centered around her love of theater, film, art, and community, and planned several in-person library workshops, but then COVID hit. Thankfully, she was able to build relationships online with the attendants of the workshops while helping them to discover their own voices and “join the conversation” online, incorporating activities on topics like articulation, creativity, public speaking, movement, and good listening skills. Each week included game challenges, PowerPoint presentations, and special guests. At the end of the workshop process, she created a book to inspire another theatrical or musical Girl Scout of the future. That book is placed in her local library in Yonkers along with a video montage of how the project was developed. Both men and women participated in the Zoom sessions.

Kaylin Ernano Wappingers Falls Service Unit

Crafting for a Cause

Kaylin worked with a local organization called “Fostering Hope Together.” She created and distributed a Christmas stocking craft activity for children of the foster care com munity to decorate during the holiday season for the organi zation’s holiday breakfast event.

Molly Gaklik Wappingers Falls Service Unit

Title 1 SMolly Gaklik

The focus of Molly’s project “Title 1 School Assistance” is to bring assistance to those students who attend schools where there is a need for school supplies, clothing, and lunches. From her experience in a Tier 1 elementary school, her interest was sparked and now she is working to help those students that were like her peers.

Sophia Galgano

Washingtonville Service Unit

Washingtonville ParkBeautification

Sophia’s Gold Award focused on the beautification of the Woofingtonville Dog Park in Washingtonville, NY. The park was a plain fenced in area with little foliage and lacking adequate seating for the dog owners; especially older indi viduals who may have difficulty standing for long peiods. She installed two new weather resistant benches which made the park more comfortable and accessible for every one to enjoy. As for beautification, four boxwood shrubs were planted at the entrance of the dog park, which gave the park a nice aesthetic. She designed and installed a “Dog Park safety Tips” sign which details the dangers of heat exhaus tion, aggressive behavior, and the importance of vaccina tions. Finally, she added dog agility equipment that provide fun for both the dogs and the owners to play and learn new tricks as the dogs jump over, crawl under, and weave around the equipment.

Gallagher

Service

Bat Box Project

The “Bat Box Project” is to bring awareness and education to children in New Yrok State on the importance of bats and how they effect our ecosystem. She will also be building and hanging bat house in FDR, a community park, to help increase the bat populations, as well as creating a brochure that will be located at FDR State Park.

Catherine Gardner Somers Service Unit

Tiptop Organization of Props

Catherine’s Gold award project improved the state of Somers High School’s theather department props closet. Through the reorganization and cleaning of the props closer, the room itself became more efficient for future productions for both cast and crew. After cleaning out the room and the props and costumes within it, she established a labeled organization system for the props closet. In turn, the project reignited a sense of community among the theater depart ment during a time when it became increasingly difficult to perform in-person.

Julia Genin Scarsdale/Edgemont Service Unit

The Rankin Project

The Rankin project focuses on the 100th anniversary of the Women’s Suffrage Movement in 2020. Women remain under represented in all levels of governance and decision making, her goal is to inspire girls to seek greater involvement in government and to understand the power of the vote. The title of the project comes from Jeannette Rankin who was the first woman ever elected to Congress in 1916.

Emma Greiner Apple Valley Service Unit

Hydrating the Milton Landing Dog Park

The project “Hydrating the Milton Landing Dog Park” focus es on the issue surrounding pet hydration. For her project, she is working to install a water source for the dogs at the dog park.

Abigail Gurden Scarsdale/Edgemont Service Unit

Journal MY Journey

To comfort anxious hospitalized teen girls at Maria Fareri Chidren’s Hospital. Abigail created and delivered 400 activi ty journals, colored pencils, and positive get well notes, and provided the journal template to a Scarsdale High School Club to refresh supplies as needed. It has been shown that a distracting activity such as journaling and self expression through art can make a patient calmer for tests, procedures, and treatments and can improve possible outcomes, as well as to help the patient process their emotions. Teen girls are frequently overlooked when activity kits are donated to hospitals as she discovered first-hand when she had spinal fusion surgery at Maria Fareri Childern’s Hospital in 2018, and wanted to share her experience and insight with SEGS Troops and give back to the hospital that took such excel lent care of her.

Genna Handel

Town of Eastchester Service Unit

Go for Gold Math Program

The “Go for Gold Math Program” focuses on addressing the issue of singlemethod math curriculum that is offered to students in school. The goal is to promote student success in math, and fill the need for additional study resources and alternatives.

Julia Handel

Tuckahoe/Eastchester Service Unit

Beat the Odds - STEM

The Beat the Odds project was founded by Julia Handel, a high school student, who wishes to help students, spe cifically those with learning differences, access resources necessary for success. Julia created an Algebra Help Center with a series of videos that explain Algebra concepts slowly and in detail. Having a learning disability herself, Julia has faced many challenges and believes that having accessible resources to watch and replay at any time would have been very helpful to her. Julia extended her efforts by creating a lending library in her school, which is accessible to those learning algebra 1 over the course of two years. The lending library has detailed, visually appealing books as well as a study trick and tip guide created by Julia.

Caroline Ircha Bronxville Service Unit

Building Healthy Communities through Diet and Wellness

For her project, Caroline served the Coming Home Program of the Reformed Church of Bronxville, which helps formerly incarcerated people re-enter society and rebuild their lives. She focused on the health, nutrition, and emotional rehabil itation of these individuals after they finished serving longterm prison sentences. Most of her fundraising went toward creating and serving healthy meals for their weekly meet ings, which fed over 40 people including participants and volunteers. When COVID-19 hit, their weekly meetings went remote, and she focused on safely delivering healthy and inspirational care packages to their participants. Despite the many challenges of Covid and life, every participant fulfilled the program requirements for graduation. They celebrated their graduation remotely, but it was still very meaningful. For her, it was important to convey to these individuals that they are not alone in their efforts to rebuild their lives after trauma, and people care about them. She is still involved in the program today.

Lindsay

Science and Sustainability

The goal of “Science and Sustainability” is to address people especially young children who may not know how fun and simple science and sustainability can be.

Riley Keating

Tuckahoe/Eastchester Service Unit

ECAP Language Lab

For her Girl Scout Gold Award, Riley combined her love of the French language with her love of working with children by volunteering at the Eastchester Community Action Part nership’s (ECAP) after-school program. Riley taught weekly French lessons to a group of twenty low-income middle and elementary school students and instructed the children on French topics such as numbers, colors, foods, basic phrases and greetings, telling time, and French culture. Additionally, she created a foreign language lab to provide the students with the necessary materials to learn languages that they don’t have access to at school. Riley purchased computers, books, flashcards, and multiple subscriptions to Mondly, an online language program. She also created video lessons to teach new words and skills and to reinforce previous lessons and then reached out to similar organizations to offer the video lessons to other students.

Catherine Kelly Arlington Service Unit

Change Begins with You & Me

Catherine created a diverse library collection at her local library. Through using children’s literature and reading, she wanted to unite children, young adults and their families in celebrating one another. The Beauty in Unity collection is a collection of books celebrating all that is beautiful and different about ourselves and others. This is a collection that is based on the ideas of looking both inward and outward, and understanding people’s cultures, identities, and beliefs. She also created a smaller version at a local woman’s shelter and book kits for children donated to a local child abuse agency. Catherine also created a library patch program celebrating libraries and encouraging reading.

Elizabeth Kelly

Arlington Service Unit

What’s your pronoun? Tips for Addressing & Engaging with the LGBTQ+ Community

Elizabeth’s Gold Award project was to educate herself and others in the community by being an ally to the LGBTQ+ community. A community that is often misunderstood and marginalized through fear and ignorance. By working with a local organization, she was able to help support the commu nity through various events, educating others, and creating a space at their meeting place for all members to connect when together.

Gaia Kelly West Nyack Service Unit

Geocaching West Nyack’s History

The focus of “Geocaching West Nyack’s History” was to bring accessible activities to children of all ages without the need of money and equipment. She created an outdoor activity that meets these needs.

Lilith Kelly West Nyack Service Unit

Restoration Remembrance

The project “Restoration Remembrance” focuses on the restoration and education of a local cemetery that is falling apart in Lilith’s neighborhood.

Angelica Kocik Congers Service Unit

Improving Birds Habitats

Angelica made four bird houses by using what Beckerle Lumber supplied. She made a plan on what she needed and how to execute the plan to make the bird houses and re searched which bird houses would be best for the birds in her community. She learned how to make bird houses and what it needs to be sustainable and better for the next bird to live in. She made sure to put a hinge and latch on each bird house so they can be cleaned by a younger Girl Scout troop for the next few years. Besides making the four bird houses and putting them in the corner, she was allowed to stain the sign and walkway of the cemetery to update the look of the cemetery. When walking on the walkways in Congers Memorial Park, she noticed the three signs with information about birds, florals, and animals and realized they needed an update and painted and stained them. In starting this project, Angelica wanted to educate Daisies about the importance of birds in our environment and giving back to the community. She did this by working with them on making binoculars with toilet paper rolls, construc tion paper, glue, and stickers. They used the binoculars to go on a hike in Germonds Park to look for birds. She also read them a book about birds and they learned a lot. She worked with older Girl Scouts and created a Bird and Nature Scavenger Hunt booklet to use in Congers Memorial Lake Park. The troop leader loved the booklet and plans to use it in the future. She met with a brownie troop to discuss the importance of birds in their environment and how to make bird feeders. They used bagels, lard, and bird seed. She made bird feeder supply bags for those in quarantine to use at home. She also conducted a meeting with the Daisies and had them paint birdhouses for them to put in their back yards. She also planted decorative grass.

Kaylee Kolesar Minisceongo/Central HaverstrawService Unit

Walk for Noe

A walkathon to help raise awareness for workplace violence. Along with the placement of a QR code placard on a memo rial bench for Noe Hamer who lost his life due to violence in the workplace, giving the community access to his story.

Gianna Leidich

Salem Service Unit

Rock & Garden Memorial

The project “Rock & Garden Memorial” was created due to the death of her art teacher, and to serve as a memorial. The memorial is intended to help students work through their grief through art, and additionallty serve as a reminder and remembrance of her art teacher.

Rachel Levine Scarsdale/Edgemont Service Unit

Adopt Don’t Shop

The “Adopt Don’t Shop” project focuses on the overpopu lation of homeless dogs in the United States. The goal is to promote the importance of adopting dogs in shelters.

Victoria Lorenzo Greater Fishkill Service Unit

The Ukulele Project

The “Ukulele Project” focuses on bringing music to the com munities to help bring people together. The need was found when her local library did not provide instruments. this sparked the project, and can help those who cannot afford to purchase their own instruments and the opportunity to try new instruments.

Kira Malaspina

Lakeland East Service Unit

Positive Police Interactions

Marisa Mana

The project “Positive Police Interactions” focuses on educat ing teens on how to interact with police officers in a positive manner, because this is something that is not taught and something that can easily occur at a traffic stop.

Give a Helping Paw

The “Give a Helping Paw” project focuses on collecting donations for animal shelters, as there are many shelters lacking in donations. The Donation Box was created to be a convenience to the community when making donations to the shelter.

Aimee Rose Maoriello

Somers Service Unit

Signage for Muscoot Farm!

Muscoot Farm, a staple in Aimee’s community, sees many visitors year round, and the signage labeling the pastures was in dire need of repair. After discussing the farm’s need for durable, informative signage, Aimee was able to redesign the original frames out of a resistant PVC material through Signarama in Millwood. The new frames, along with in formation sheets she created, make for a great learning experience at the farm, and by incorporating a QR code on every sign visitors can test their knowledge on the interac tive website she created. Growing up, Aimee learned a lot at Muscoot and wanted to encourage others to do the same through her project.

Medha Mathur West Nyack Service Unit

Delta Stigma

Delta Stigma is designed to make a change in mental health education nationally; although Medha began making chang es in her school district. Delta Stigma’s purpose is to be a resource for educators and students for mental health awareness. A goal of the organization is to put an end to negative stigmas and sterotypes that surround those who suffer from mental illnesses. She created a webbsite, a men tal health curriculum for teachers, resrouce presentations for Clarkstown South High School, a nationwide petition for mental health education, and presentations shown to health classes in her high school.

Molly McGarity

Pearl River Service Unit

Nurturing Nature Knowledge

The project “Nuturing Nature Knowledge” focuses on three aspects, bringing a nature curriculum to Camp Addisone Boyce, bringing nature education to the youth of Pearl River, and bringing the opportunity to learn about nature to youth during the pandemic.

Emily Medina-Finsen Monroe-Woodbury Service Unit

Hope For All

The project “Hope for All” is focused on nurturing and creat ing a space of acceptance for people.

Angela Meister

Putnam Valley Service Unit

Activity Books

The project “Activity Books” focuses on the creation of grab and go bags and activity books to help alleviate parents worries when their children are in hospitals.

Julia Mendlovsky Ossining Service Unit

Mask Making for Essential Workers

Mask Making for Essential Workers recognized the need for masks for essential workers during the mask short age during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Julia assembled a team of volunteers and completed over 550 masks which she donated to Hassenfeld Children Cancer center and created masks for essential workers. She hosted workshops and created videos to teach each other to sew the mask to continue donating them.

Julia Meyerson Pelham Service Unit

Robotics for Good

In order to address a lack of early childhood STEM educa tion, Julia developed a curriculum, which teaches a variety of STEM concepts through the lens of robotics. She posted its curriculum online so anyone can access it and ran the course at a library where children learned to code, built mini-robots and robotic hands, and discussed robotics, ethical technology, and the engineering process. Through her Gold Award project, Julia was able to improve access to and equity in STEM education.

Cassandra Moss Yorktown Heights Service Unit

Fit & Fabulous

Fit and Fabulous addressed the importance of healthy eating. She created access for students to have healthy food throughout the day and create workout groups to support others in their fitness journey. She expanded her project to include healthy eating at local food pantries.

Courtney Murphy Stony Point Service Unit

The Peaceful Pathway - Sisters of Life

Courtney’s Gold Award included the design, development, and fundraising of a labor-intensive service project. For her project, she installed a mile long nature trail and small footbridge on the grounds of the Sisters of Life in Monte bello, NY. This pathway provides a location for reflection and outdoor exercise. By improving the environment and creating sustainability on the grounds at the motherhouse, the nature trail contributes to the development of a healthy community.

Saatiya Naik Scarsdale/Edgemont Service Unit

Matt-a-Door: Quiet the Storm

Saatiya’s Gold Award project addresses the importance of durable all-weather storm doors that protect environments against harsh weather conditions. The sustainability of storm door insulate, ventilate as well as secure establish ments and make it cost efficient.

Grace Nowicki West Point Service Unit Community Gardening

Grace developed a plan for saving or building community gardens on military installations, and distributed the plan through the US Army Installation Management Command for distribution to local housing offices across the nation. Emma Opel Croton Service Unit

Danish Home Garden

The focus of the “Danish Home Garden” project is to create an outdoor garden at a nursing home. She found a need for this when she saw during the pandemic, the elderly were unable to receive visits from their families. She found an other benefit of the garden to be that this provided an ac tivity for residents to get outside and be socially distanced.

Laura

Service Unit

The Ready Readers

Laura’s project addressed the scarcity of food, school sup plies, and books theatening the lives of the children in the Port Chester and South Bronx parishes. The epidemic led to job loss, increased hunger, and poverty among these com munities. Her project addressed these immediate needs for food and school supplies. Her book donations and videos supported the children’s need for education, connection, and community.

Esha Paynda West Nyack Service Unit

Stay Connected Through Literature

The project “Stay Connected through Literature” focuses on bringing literature to children during the pandemic. She planned to build a free library that would provide free books to the community, and would also have a sanitation station there to keep it clean and germ free.

Daniella Picerni Katonah/Lewisboro Service Unit

Sustaining Smiles

The focus of “Sustaining Smiles” is to bring education and awareness to children and families about the importance of oral hygiene. Her goal for this project was to create goodie bags and pamphlets to provide to the community. She saw there was a need when families struggled financially during the pandemic.

Spreading Awareness about Celiac Disease

The project “Spreading Awareness About Celiacs Disease” focuses on her travelling to restaurants in her community and sharing the importance of being clean when making food when someone orders “gluten free.”

Danielle Potack Congers Service Unit

Breath Deep: Outdoor Coping for Students

Danielle’s project provided an outdoor sensory experience to help elementary students in an alternative special education school learn to better cope with difficult emotions. It fea tures a bench, signs prompting students to use a variety of coping mechanisms, and many perennial flowers to attract pollinators and create a peaceful and welcoming environ ment.

Kathleen Praino Greenburgh/Elmsford ServiceUnit

COVID-19 Relief: Promoting Children’s Literacy

The focus of “COVID-19 Relief: Promoting Children’s Litera cy” was to provide children with books; free books that are available at all times. She learned during the pandemic that children did not have access to books due to the closing of schools and libraries.

Julia Prestigiacomo West Lakeland Service Unit

Break into Science!

Julia has always had a passion for science, and women are the gender minority compared to men in scientific occupations. She created hands-on science experiments to be more available to young girls outside of school envi ronments and to help pique greater interest in the science world.

Emma Prunty West Nyack Service Unit

Navigating Through Children of Promise Stable Trails

Emma addressed the need of navigational issues at a special needs horseback riding facility, Children of Promise Stables (COPS). When the riders are on the trail, they are unsure where they are going and rely solely on the horse leader to give the directions. With the use of both a map/trial sign and trail markers, the rider will hopefully be able to success fully learn and understand their navigational skills on their own.

Jillian Raguso

Mount Pleasant Service Unit

Kidney Health Awareness

Deciding to focus on kidney disease for her Gold Award project was a personal decision for Jillian. After she was diagnosed with Chronic Kidney Disease, she realized how important it is to educate people on kidney disease and the importance of Living Donor registration. She made it a goal to educate as many people as possible and to also help the children of New York Presbyterian Pediatric Dialysis center at the hospital where she was treated. The socio-economic impact on what the patients had available to them during her stay is what helped her decide to donate games, crafts, and toys for the dialysis center.

Olivia Rosner

Erika Rajovic

Unit

Growing up with dyscalculia, Erika always wanted to help elementary students learn with greater ease, so she decided to complete her Gold Award by creating life size floor math visuals for the hallways of the local elemen tary school that she attended. These visuals are bright, large, fun, and effective. Erika made sure to make each visual connect to what students were learning per grade so it would be useful for the teachers to use, as well as the students. For example, on the visuals they have fractions, shapes, multiples of each number, and visuals of fraction charts. Erika believes creating this project was probably one of the best things she’s ever done in life and is glad she was able to make a difference and help students learn with greater ease.

Ashley Rosen Pleasantville Service Unit

Art as a Vehicle to Overcome Bullying

Ashely focused on how art could be a vehicle to cope with bullying. As her project progressed, she learned more about the importance of creating healthy rela tionships and the power of being kind to others. She enhanced the website she had initially created for her Silver Award to address the global need and plans to re linquish that role to a younger Girl Scout. Ashley led two workshops, one where she taught girls how to sew and another having the girls create cards with positive mes sages. Using upcycled tee shirts with her project slogan “You Are Not Alone”, she led girls to create pillows. The cards created during the workshop were adorned with affirmations and pretty pictures. The pillows and cards, along with stickers, buttons, and business cards with her website’s URL were packed as gifts and given to a local school’s Emotional Support Program. Knowing that she could offer another person refuge from their anxiety, discomfort, or pain felt great.

Advocation Nation

Olivia worked with young kids to teach them how to use their voices to make an impact. She focused on environ mental issues and wrote letters to Senators, Governors, and other elected officials to teach and show them how they can make a difference.

Meagan Ryan Ossining Service Unit

Reduce, Reuse, Review

For her Gold Award project, Meagan created a community test review book drive and resources for studying to help families who cannot afford the expense of review books for Regents, AP exams, and other standardized tests.

Sarah Sandor Mount Pleasant Service Unit

The Nursing Home Care Package Project

The pandemic created more isolation within nursing home communities due to the vulnerability of the residents. Sarah created care packages for the residents that included donat ed blankets, non-skid socks, and hand-made letters from Girl Scouts of different troops.

Julia Sateriale

Yorktown Heights Service Unit

Mind and Body Kindness

Mind and Body Kindness addresses teen anxiety, the lack of knowledge, and coping skills to deal with anxiety. She created an Instagram page offering posts about anxiety, mindfulness, and wellness strategies. She hosted workshops with retreat groups and leading nature activities like hiking, kayaking, fishing, and swimming.

Jenna Scanlan

Yorktown Heights Service Unit

Trail of Honor

Jenna’s Gold Award addressed the issue of the lack of educational resources at Lasdon Park to inform the public about the wars that our verterans have fought in. Also, it addressed the issue of maintaining the statues and greenery at the Trail of Honor.

Jessica Silverman West Nyack Service Unit

Going the Distance to End Animal Cruelty: One Mile at a Time

Jessica’s Gold Award project focused on providing young girls with plant-based nutrition insight during COVID-19. The project involved seminars for girls, the chance to rec reate recipes from the webinar, and developing her site for permanent resources. Jessica created the website, jessi catalksveganism.com, to aid families and young children. She continued her vegan recipe development with UCLA dining dieticians to effect change on campus. Jessica is excited to demistify plant-based nutrition and to share its benefits for the environment.

Kaylie Singhal North Salem Service Unit

Kits and Cartwheel for KEEP

Kaylie partnered with the Katonah Education Exchange Program (KEEP), a local organization in Katonah, NY whose mission is to “KEEP” girls in school. They support the Kakenya Center for Excellence (KCE) in Kenya, Africa. KCE supports girls so that they can be educated which is great because boys are usually prioritized for education in that area of the country. The school not only provides girls with a quality education but also keeps them safe. Since KCE is a boarding school, it keeps the girls safe from child marriage, child pregnancies, and harmful cultural practices such as FGM. She collected donations for first aid kits and she assembled first aid kits for each classroom at the school. The total donation value for all the first aid kit supplies was $1,245! Throughout this process, she worked with a pedia trician and made instructional first aid kit booklets for the kits. She was able to educate groups about the project. She also educated others on basic first aid through Zoom con ferences. The second part of her project, was a Cartwheela-Thon, where she used her passion for gymnastics to raise money for KCE’s new medical center. The event raised $3,292 for KEEP to donate to the Kakenya Center for Excel lence Health Center.

Daphne Sullivan

Port Chester/Rye Brook Service Unit

Benches for Buddies

From visiting many shelters throughout the years, Daphne found not only herself but also the other volunteers were in clined to stay longer when the environment was bright and upbeat with plenty of comfortable seating options. A local shelter in Harrison, NY lacked this seating aspect causing volunteers to not stay as long in the kitty cottage. Daphne tackled this issue by constructing benches for each room and creating cat bed covers with funky patterns. In doing so she was also able to teach girls woodworking, a predomi nantly male dominated activity, enforcing the idea that Girls Can Do Anything.

Leah Vinodh

Scarsdale/Edgemont Service Unit Packs of Hope

Leah’s project, “Packs of Hope,” provided 100+ children in foster care with a backpack filled with comfort and es sential items, that could alleviate their trauma and pro vide the foster child with a sense of belonging, stability and ownership. Each backpack that the children received was filled with a small stuffed animal, book, arts & craft activity, toothbrush, toothpaste, body wash, socks, and a small blanket. The children in foster care who received this backpack (Pack of Hope) were able to have the things in the backpack as something they own and would provide some form of stability. Leah worked with a foster care agency in the Bronx (Rising Ground) and donated 100 new backpacks filled with the essential and comfort items. As part of com pleting this project, she conducted several workshops with younger Girl Scout Troops in Scarsdale/Edgemont, sharing information of the needs of the children in foster care as well as involving the younger Girl Scouts to be a part of this project by making cards to include in the backpacks. The children who attended these workshops were educated on how they could give back to the community in their own little ways.

Alexa Warren Pearl River Service Unit

Donating Laptops to Those in Need

Donating Laptops to those in Need addressed the issue of children not getting a proper education because their country is impoverished or underdeveloped. Both children and adults lack important knowledge like medical knowl edge, reading skills, and STEM awareness. The people in these countries are dying from diseases that can be easily prevented but people do not know how to fix it. By donating laptops and WiFi to the people, we can solve all these issues. The use and implementation of these laptops drastically improved their lives.

Alexa Warycha Somers Service Unit

Raising Awareness of Celiac & Gluten Intolerance

At 10 years old, Alexa discovered that she was Celiac and it was very hard to adjust to eating gluten free. It took a lot of trial and error to find enjoyable gluten free foods to eat. The goal of her project was to inform people about what Celiac is, what foods contain gluten, and the dangers of cross con tamination. Alexa did this by creating her favorite foods and recipe pamphlet, creating a gluten free blog titled “Alexa’s Gluten Free,” informing people during public events and meeting with local restaurants. For Alexa, it was rewarding to hear people say that they learned something from these discussions and she hopes her Gold Award project will con tinue to help others.

Ariel Yarmus

Cornwall Service Unit

Cornwall for All

I wrote and presented a lesson on gender and sexuality to the guidance counselors, administrators, and students at my school, and received a grant to pay for new LGBTQ+ based books to create a new section in my school’s library.

Nicole Zlotnikov Scarsdale/Edgemont Service Unit

Farm to Food Pantry Program

Farm to Food Pantry Program connects local farms and small food pantries, supplying food to low income people. Nicole facilitated a process where fresh produce was collect ed from the local farms by volunteers and delivered directly to food pantries for the distribution to people in need.

Danielle - Congratulations on achieving your Girl Scout Gold Award.

Through the years your Girl Scout journey has awarded you adventures and helped to make you the person you are today…making a difference in your community. We are so very proud of your accomplishments. We love you!

Mom, Dad, Aaron and Nathan

on achieving

Gold

Mom and Dad

on earning

on earning your Girl Scout Gold

are so proud of all your Girl Scout accomplishments and

Dad and