86 Connecticut Girl Scouts Receive Gold Award, Including 6 From Ridgefield

Six Ridgefield residents recently took home the gold for creating community-focused projects that earned them a prestigious award.

Jennifer L. Brian’s Gold Award Project addressed the question of how to improve the comfort level of new students joining her school through A Better Chance. She created on-boarding program for the ABC Scholars.

Alexandra DiGiacomo's project addressed the rapid decline of shark populations due to overfishing, shark finning, and unsustainable fishing methods. She wrote and published an illustrated children’s book, A Familiar Fin, about a shark and a young boy whose friendship helps readers sympathize with sharks.

Katherine Jasminski’s Gold Award Project addressed the issue of the “summer slide” that elementary-aged kids face between summer vacation and the new school year. She created an online learning program with activities, lesson plans, and other resources to help parents encourage their kids to continue to read and learn over the summer.

Madeline Kutler organized a town-wide event with a lecture from Nicole Seagriff from The Pink Agenda to help spread awareness of breast cancer in the community. She organized ongoing donations of hand-knitted and hand-sewn hats for breast cancer patients at Yale New Haven Hospital who were undergoing chemotherapy and created a brochure for the Yale Resource Room.

Mikhaela Miller created meetings to help young girls from the Boys and Girls Club address how the media, societal pressures, and other expectations can negatively affect a girl’s self-esteem. She created posters and flyers to help girls see that they matter and are beautiful inside and out.

Georgianna Wood's passion was to help women in Africa by giving them the opportunity to go to school. She traveled to Africa and gave women hope and confidence to keep moving forward despite any pressures or obstacles. She also held three community-wide awareness sessions and collected USB drives to send to students at AU so they can continue their work.

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