86 Connecticut Girl Scouts Receive Gold Award, Including 7 From Brookfield

Seven Brookfielders recently took home gold for their community focused projects that helped them earn their Gold Award.

Allison Abramski’s Gold Award Project focused on the lack of variety and nutrition she found in food items at the Brookfield food pantry. She created a cookbook in order to give individuals more healthy options when cooking their meals. She donated 100 copies of her cookbook to the food pantry and shared an electronic version with food pantries in surrounding towns.

Delaney Adams created a program titled, “Commons’ Companions,” where Girl Scouts visited residents of Brookfield Commons, a senior resident community. Girl Scouts played games, did various activities and had conversations with the seniors at the Commons. She also planned a candy-themed kick-off party with a performer, food, decorations, music, candy and over 60 handmade props made from candy wrappers. Brookfield Commons will her program in the future.

Gabrielle Garizio educated the community about the decline of the honeybee population and taught what would happen if there were no more pollinators. She built and distributed multiple bee houses in the community so bees will be able to nest and build a hive. She also created a Facebook page called “Bee Aware – Girl Scout Gold Award” and shared photos, facts, and other information about bees and planted pollinator-friendly bulbs in her town garden.

Kyra Kabulis’ project focused on bridging the gap between the youth and elderly community by improving the physical, social, and mental health of senior citizens in the community. Along with a group of volunteers, she went to a local senior center and went on walks with seniors, coordinated a musical performance and an exercise program for the seniors. Her exercise class will continue to run at the senior center.

Olivia Morin’s project addressed the issue of the gap of communication between the elderly and others in the community. She created a mobile library and trained traumatic brain injury survivors to go into the nursing homes to share and read a book with the seniors, talk to them, and keep each other company. The Traumatic Brain Injury survivors enjoyed the program so much that they will continue to implement the Mobile Library next year.

Paige Peck painted a map of the United States to teach students about geography. Elementary school students can improve geography skills in a fun and interactive way with laminated activities and games. Brookfield's Parks and Recreation will repaint the map as needed.

Lauren White's gold project made information on books readily available to teens and aimed to bring more interesting and popular books to the teen section in the library. She created a recommendation board where teens can request books they want to read, created posters and hung them throughout the library letting teens know when new books came in or other notifications.

The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest, most prestigious award that Girl Scout Seniors and Ambassadors can earn. In order to earn the Gold Award, The Girl Scouts of America states that a Scout must do the following:

1. Choose an issue: Use your values and skills to identify a community issue you care about.
2. Investigate: Research everything you can about the issue.
3. Get help: Invite others to support and take action with you.
4. Create a plan: Create a project plant that achieves sustainable and measurable impact*
5. Present your plan and get feedback: Sum up your project plan for your Girl Scout Council
6. Take action: Take the lead to carry out your plan.
7. Educate and inspire: Share what you have experienced with others.

Click here to see the full list of Gold Award recipients.

Image via Girl Scouts of Connecticut