Girl Scouts of Nassau County recently recognized Massapequa Park resident Emily Festa, North Massapequa Park resident Megan Kaufman and Massapequa residents Nicole Grace, Meghana Rao and Megan Batt, as winners of the Gold Award, the highest and most prestigious award within the Girl Scouts Movement. In order to be eligible for a Gold Award, a Girl Scout must have completed two Girl Scout Senior or Ambassador Journeys or have already received the Silver Award and completed one additional Journey. The Gold Award also requires the completion of 80-hours or more of an individual leadership Take Action project that makes a sustainable and measurable impact on an important issue or need in the community and that serves to educate and inspire others in the community.
“Earning the Gold Award is an incredible achievement that only 5 percent of all Girl Scouts nationwide obtain,” said Donna Ceravolo, executive director and CEO of the Girl Scouts of Nassau County. “We are all so proud of the Gold Award recipients. Their hard work and dedication is truly admirable.”
This award recognizes the Senior and Ambassador Girl Scouts for their leadership skills and excellence and must be completed before or during the Girl Scout’s senior year in high school. To the majority of the girls receiving the Gold Award, it serves as the peak of their Girl Scout Leadership Experience.
A recent graduate of St. John the Baptist DHS and incoming student at Farmingdale State College, Festa’s Girl Scout Gold Award Take Action Project, “Express Yourself,” addressed the complicated issue of bullying. By conducting workshops and sharing her personal story about being bullied, Festa strove for her presentations to have the greatest impact possible. She provided adults, teens and adolescents in her community with information on what to do and where to go if they encounter bullying. She also conducted pre and post surveys to measure children’s understanding of bullying and skills gained on how to prevent it. Festa also had both parents and children sign a pledge promising to no longer stay quiet about bullying.
Kaufman, a graduate of Plainedge High School and student at Nassau Community College, chose her project, titled “Fitness,” which focused on the importance of fitness and its relation to body image. Through a series of workshops offered to teenage girls in her community, Kaufman introduced several types of low impact exercise activities. She worked with the Arthritis Foundation to create these routines to ensure that the fitness workshops would be accessible to all girls. Kaufman believed that helping girls take control of their health and fitness would empower them and improve their self-image.
Newly minted Plainedge High School graduate and incoming student at Macaulay Honors College at Baruch, Grace’s Girl Scout Gold Award Take Action Project, “The Importance of a Healthy Lifestyle,” encouraged children to make healthier lifestyle choices. Grace consulted a nutritionist, doctors and dentists to help develop her workshops for children ages 5 to 10. The workshops included information on healthy eating and exercise. Grace also created a cookbook of healthy snacks for the participants to take home after the workshop.
Rao, a graduate of Massapequa High School and student at the University of Chicago, won for her Take Action Project, “Crossing Barriers,” which addressed the issue that South Asians are underrepresented on the bone marrow registry. After learning that thousands of individuals die from blood cancers every year and that people are more likely to match with someone of their own race, Rao wanted to raise awareness about these diseases to increase the number of South Asian individuals in the bone marrow registry. She held workshops for South Asian youth and created a website to raise awareness and educate the groups on how to become bone marrow donors.
Batt, a graduate of Massapequa High School and rising sophomore at SUNY Cortland won for her Take Action Project, “Emergency Preparedness: Are You Ready?,” which addresses disaster preparation. Batt, a member of the Massapequa Fire Department Juniors, conducted workshops in her community and distributed videos she created on emergency preparedness with the goal of informing her community on how to prepare for a disaster. She hopes that the community members that attended her workshops and viewed her videos will now be properly equipped with the knowledge to help save them and others in an emergency situation.
A lifelong value comes with having earned a Gold Award. Recipients of the Gold Award who enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces may receive advanced rank for their achievements. Most universities and colleges offer scholarships or other recognition to Gold Award recipients and yearly.
To volunteer, reconnect, donate or join, visit www.gsnc.org.
