West Hempstead/Franklin Square Girl Scouts Awarded Highest Honor

West Hempstead, NY (June 30, 2016)— The Girl Scouts of Nassau County recently distributed 101 Gold Awards during a ceremony hosted by the United States Merchant Marine Academy. Brina Agostini, Alexandria Brocco and Maia Fernandez of West Hempstead/Franklin Square were among awardees. Now in its hundredth year, 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.

“We are extremely proud to celebrate the achievement of over 100 local young women earning their Girl Scout Gold Award during its 100th year,” said Donna Ceravolo, Executive Director and CEO of the Girl Scouts of Nassau County. “On average, only five percent of eligible Girl Scouts successfully earn the Gold Award, making Alexandria, Brina and Maia part of an exclusive group of women with the tools to become leaders in the 21st century.”

Gold Award projects have positively impacted girls’ lives, their communities and the world for 100 years.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 Scouts Council before embarking on her project. The Girl Scout presents her final conclusions as the last step of the journey.

The three recipients tackled a project that held a deep significance to them. Their projects are described below:

Through her project, “The Golden Puzzle,” Brina provided children with autism and children without it opportunities to interact with each other. She created a club in her school that will host friendship-building events for children in the future. Through their participation in this event, children with autism were able to build lasting friendships with other children. Those without autism were able to learn more about it, focusing on the message that there is more to a person than just the title of a disorder.

Alexandria wanted to help fight depression in the elderly through her project “Everyone Has a Story.” After interviewing residents of a local retirement home and learning their stories, she held a reception, invited families and presented each resident with their framed story and picture. Alexandria created a public Facebook page including the same information from the pamphlet she developed and a book that held all the stories for the home to keep. Letters and copies of the pamphlet were sent to 25 nursing homes with instructions on how to create the same program.

Maia’s interest in butterflies and environmental conservation and sustainability inspired her project, “Butterfly Garden.” Maia’s passion for informing others on how butterflies have a positive impact on the environment, led her to create and care for a butterfly garden in Tanner’s Pond, an Environmental Center in Garden City. Maia teamed up with the Center to give tours of the conservation center and her garden to school children and the public. She used her artistic side to create coloring books featuring drawings of plants and flowers from her garden with tips on how to save the environment. Her coloring books will continue to be given to visitors and her garden will be cared for and maintained as part of an attraction in the environmental center.

Lifelong value comes with having earned a Gold Award. According to the Girl Scout Research Institute, Gold Award recipients 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.

Notable Gold Award recipients include Jan Hopkins, CNN financial news anchor, and Betsy Boze, Senior Fellow at American Association of State Colleges and Universities and President at Kent State University Stark.

We’re the Girl Scouts of Nassau County: We’re 23,000 strong – 23,000 girls and adults who believe every girl from Nassau County can change the world. It began over 100 years ago with one woman, Juliette Gordon “Daisy” Low, who believed in the power of every girl. Today, we continue her vision of building girls of courage, confidence, and character who make the world a better place by helping them discover their inner strength, passion and talents. And with programs in Nassau County, across Long Island and throughout the United States, there’s a chance for every girl to do something amazing. We’re the Girl Scouts. To volunteer, reconnect, donate or join, visit www.gsnc.org or contact Donna Rivera-Downey at 516 741-2550.