East Meadow Girl Scouts Awarded Highest Honor

East Meadow, NY (July 9, 2018)—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 Ariana Adames and Dana Kleiner of East Meadow. 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 over one hundred years.”

The Gold Award Girl Scouts each tackled a project that held a deep significance to them. Their projects are described below.

Ariana’s Gold Award project focused on her vision for “Coding a Future for Girls.” Knowing that girls are historically underrepresented in the computer science and STEM fields, Ariana hosted a series of workshops in her community to educate and inspire young girls. The elementary and middle school girls learned about coding, powerful female coders currently in the field, and resources available to them to help them feel empowered and inspired. Ariana’s website continues to educate her community members, as it offers downloadable coding software, coding lessons and coding projects.

Ariana is a recent graduate of East Meadow High School where she played the flute and piccolo in her school’s orchestra. She was also an active member of the National Honor Society and Feminist Culture club. Ariana will be attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the fall. Her fondest Girl Scout memory is traveling to Camp Blue Bay with her troop where they sang songs, made friendship bracelets, and learned survival skills.

For her Gold Award project, “ADHD,” Dana focused on helping her community better understand this learning disability. She used her personal experience with ADHD to create a program that helped children and teens in local schools learn more about the learning disability, its symptoms, and how it affects those who are diagnosed with it. Through her educational workshops, Dana also wanted to encourage less bullying and more inclusion of children with ADHD. In addition to her educational sessions, Dana created a Tumblr blog where she continues to post stories about those living with ADHD, with the hope of inspiring others and reassuring them they aren’t alone.

Dana is a recent graduate of East Meadow High School, where she was in the chess, fashion and connection clubs. She will be attending Nassau Community College in the fall. Her fondest Girl Scout memories are earning her Bronze, Silver, and now Gold Awards.

Approximately 1 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, Georgia, 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. And 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.