Erial VFW, Township Council Honor Girl Scout

Erial VFW Post No. 5794 and Gloucester Township Council honored Jennifer O'Neill Monday night for winning the Girl Scouts' prestigious Gold Award.

O'Neill, a 2012 Timber Creek Regional High School graduate, was one of just two Camden County Girl Scouts to win the organization's Gold Award this year, according to her mother, Lori O'Neill.

O'Neill, 18, an Erial resident with Girl Scouts Troop No. 724, won the award for her work in the Camden County community promoting healthy eating habits and physical fitness.

According to Lori O'Neill, a Girl Scout must work on their project for 60 hours and complete 40 hours of leadership and 30 hours of community-service activities to receive the Gold Award, which is awarded to Scouts ages 14 to 18. It is the equivalent of the Boy Scouts' Eagle Scout Award.

"She worked her butt off," the proud mother said. "It's nice to see her flourish in something that she really enjoys."

While she began working on her Gold Award project the beginning of her junior year at Timber Creek, O'Neill was a freshman in high school when she began studying dietary and exercise sciences.

It was documentary "Super Size Me," which chronicled a man's McDonald's-only diet over 30 days, that initially inspired O'Neill to study fitness. She watched Morgan Spurlock's 2004 film as an eighth-grader, and eventually became Camden County 4-H's ambassador for food and fitness.

As O'Neill put it Monday night: "That wasn't good enough."

So, O'Neill worked to develop a program to educate school-age children about their health.

"I created a program. It mixes fun games for the younger kids, but it's also very versatile. It can go up to high school—the games can be changed," she said. "It teaches you about how you can be fit, but it doesn't take too much time. You don't have to spend three hours at the gym. You can spend 45 minutes a day, and it's sufficient. It also taught about how to eat right."

O'Neill cautions against eating large portions—"Portion distortion was a huge one," she said—and drinking soda and other sugary drinks.

"Just switching out your soda for water makes such a big difference," she said.

As an aspiring doctor, O'Neill presumably will impart the knowledge she attained while working on her Girl Scouts Gold Award project well into adulthood.