Girl Scouts of Nassau County recently hosted its annual Gold Award ceremony at Adelphi University. During the event, more than 70 local Girl Scouts earned their Gold Awards, including Christina Fronckwicz, Maria Krieg, Samantha Maggio, Jonna Pyros, Lola Pyros, Kelly Rogers, Caroline Schneider and Ashley Tarricone of Farmingdale. The Gold Award program recognizes the power and dedication shared by an elite group of young women who earn the highest honor a Girl Scout can achieve. Each girl spent more than 80 hours over the past year planning, executing and presenting the results of her project, which aimed to make the world a better place for others as well as herself.
“These young women are among an exclusive group of leaders who have earned the highest honor a Girl Scout can earn. I commend each and every one of them for the countless hours they have spent dedicated to their project—not only to empower and better themselves, but to make the world a better place,” said Rande Bynum Chief Executive Officer, Girl Scouts of Nassau County. “Gold Award projects have positively impacted girls’ lives, their communities and the world for more than 100 years.”
The Gold Award Girl Scouts each tackled a project that held a deep significance to them.
Through her project, “A New Home for St. Kilian Youth,” Fronckwicz was able to create a safe and open space for teens in her community to freely discuss their religions. In doing her research about the various youth groups in her community, Fronckwicz created a brochure that contains information about all of the youth groups and their programs for many religious organizations in Farmingdale. She helped raise awareness about the importance of community youth groups by holding informational sessions and encouraging teens from all different religions to come together. After finishing her project, Fronckwicz helped several of her peers find a religious youth group in their community where they felt welcomed and safe.
Fronckwicz is a rising senior at Our Lady of Mercy Academy, where she is a member of the National Honor Society, pro-life club and photography club. She is also a member of the varsity swim team. Her fondest Girl Scout memory is when her troop participated in the Annual Farmingdale Holiday Parade.
Krieg focused her Gold Award project on her personal experience. After painfully tearing her ACL, Krieg created “Team ACL” to help others avoid the same physical knee pain she had to endure. Knowing that over 200,000 people sustain ACL injuries each year in the U.S. and eight of those people attended her high school, Krieg wanted to educate athletes and coaches on ways to prevent the injury. She created two educational videos on YouTube which gave tips on how to strengthen the muscles near the ACL and provided words of encouragement for those who have suffered from the injury. The coaches at Farmingdale High School have implemented her videos and educational materials into their curriculum for athletes.
Krieg is a recent graduate of Farmingdale High School where she was a member of the National Honor Society and team player for her school’s soccer, basketball and lacrosse teams. She will be attending Haverford College this fall. Her fondest Girl Scout memory is selling cookies every year with her troop.
Maggio took on the challenge of helping young girls with special needs raise their self-esteem through her project, “Time Capsule.” Partnering with the Farmingdale Youth Council, Maggio was able to create a program where attendees completed activities that helped improve their social skills and learned about the importance of self-love and encouragement. The attendees also created their own personal and unique time capsules that they could tuck away to open in five years. Maggio’s educational materials will now be used in special needs classrooms in her school district.
A recent graduate of Farmingdale High School, Maggio was a member of the National Honor Society, Key Club and was a varsity track and field athlete. Maggio will be attending SUNY Oneonta in the fall to pursue a degree in Childhood Education. Maggio’s fondest Girl Scout memory is attending the Healing Headbands workshop with her troop where they made headbands for children in hospitals.
For her project, Jonna saw the need in her local church for community education about the positive effects gardens can have on the environment. Using her love for the outdoors, her project “Sensory Garden” came to life. She brought her community together to help build a garden at her church. Jonna used the garden and project as a way to encourage people to enjoy the outdoors more. She worked with the church to create a gardening club that will take care of the garden for years to come.
A recent graduate from Farmingdale High School, Jonna was a member of the National, Italian and Tri-M Honor Societies. Jonna was also an active member of her school’s swim team, where she served as team captain her senior year. Jonna will be attending LIU Post in the fall. Her fondest Girl Scout memory is the annual camping trips she would take with her troop.
Lola wanted to help foster a safer environment for children in her community through her project, “Safety.” She focused on house, pet, water and sun safety, and she created hands-on learning plans for a local summer camp. Lola kept the children engaged with fun activities that helped them learn different safety tips and what they can do to prevent an unsafe situation. The preschool day camp continues to use Lola’s learning materials to help educate more kids about the importance of being aware of their surroundings to help keep them safe.
Lola is a recent graduate of Farmingdale High School, where she was a member of the National and Italian Honor Societies. She was also captain of the girl’s swim team. This fall, Lola will be attending LIU Post, studying childhood education. Her fondest Girl Scout memory was helping her younger Girl Scout sisters learn new things.
As her Gold Award project, “Being the Best Me,” Rogers helped address the misconception that physical health is more important than mental health. She created an interactive and informational program that helped educate her community about the importance of mental health. Attendees were given tips and resources to improve their mental health. Rogers’ materials have been added to the curriculum of Farmingdale schools as a way to continuously inform students about the importance of mental health.
A recent graduate of Farmingdale High School, Rogers was an active member in the art club. She also loved learning new things in all her classes. Rogers will be attending Hunter College in New York City this fall. Her fondest Girl Scout memories are of the trips she took with her troop because it gave everyone the chance to get to know one another.
Schneider took on the challenge of helping children better prepare for kindergarten and elementary school through her project, “Promoting ELL Kindergarten Readiness.” She worked with her local elementary school to help children who haven’t been exposed to the English language prepare for their first day at school. Creating interactive and informative lesson plans, Schneider was able to help children master important skills such as letter and number recognition, proper handwriting skills and the ability to read. Her materials are now being used by the parents and teachers at Abbey Lane Elementary School.
Schneider, a rising junior at Our Lady of Mercy West, is a member of the swim team, cross country team and track team. She is also an active member of photography club and the young politicians club. Her fondest Girl Scout memory is going on a mother/daughter trip to Rocking Horse Ranch.
Wanting to help rebuild her local park and make it a safe place for the community, Tarricone created her project “Town of Oyster Bay Park F-3.” Tarricone noticed that the park had become run-down and the maintenance of the park lacked attention from the town. Creating a petition and presentation, Tarricone approached her town board asking them for help with restoring the park’s condition. Tarricone was able to convince the town to dedicate more resources and funds to fixing and maintaining the park.
Tarricone is a recent graduate of Farmingdale High School, where she was president of the Technology Honor Society, treasurer of the carpentry club and section leader of the flute section for the band. She will be attending Farmingdale State College in the fall. Her fondest Girl Scout memory is helping senior citizens at a local nursing home cook their own dinner.
Approximately one million Girl Scout alumnae have developed Gold Award projects that addressed local or global issues. After identifying an area of interest, a successful Gold Award recipient performs hours of research and prepares a project proposal to be submitted for feedback and approval to the Girl Scout Council before embarking on her project. The Girl Scout presents her final conclusions as the last step of the journey.
Lifelong value comes with having earned a Gold Award. According to the Girl Scout Research Institute, Gold Award Girl Scouts display more positive life outcomes pertaining to sense of self, life, satisfaction, leadership, life success, community service and civic engagement. Recipients of the award who enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces may receive advanced rank for their achievements and can receive scholarships or other recognition from most colleges or universities.
We’re the Girl Scouts of Nassau County: We’re 23,000 strong: 17,900 girls and 5,000 adults who believe in the power of every G.I.R.L. (Go-getter, Innovator, Risk-taker, Leader) from Nassau County to change the world. Our extraordinary journey began more than 100 years ago with the original G.I.R.L., Juliette Gordon “Daisy” Low. On March 12, 1912, in Savannah, GA, she organized the very first Girl Scout Troop, and every year since we’ve honored her vision and legacy, building girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place. We’re the preeminent leadership development organization for girls. With programs in Nassau County, across Long Island and throughout the United States and across the globe, Girl Scouts offers every girl a chance to practice a lifetime of leadership, adventure and success.
We’re the Girl Scouts. To volunteer, reconnect, donate or join, visit www.gsnc.org or contact Donna Rivera-Downey at 516-741-2550.
—Submitted by Girl Scouts of Nassau County
