Elwood HS Student's Sensory Kit Project Earns Her Girl Scouts Gold Award

ELWOOD, NY — Olivia LoBue provided sensory friendly kits for students with special needs to each of the four nurses’ offices in the Elwood School District to achieve her Girl Scouts Gold Award, the school district announced. LoBue attends Elwood-John H. Glenn High School.

The Gold Award recognizes scouts who demonstrate a commitment to public service by developing innovative and sustainable projects that have a measurable impact.

The sensory kits are designed to help people with autism and other sensory processing disorders by providing items and tools to help calm a person during an emergency or stressful event. Items in a sensory kit include fidget toys, noise-reducing earmuffs, sunglasses and communication devices to help the person communicate with first responders.

LoBue created communication cards to aid in communicating a person’s needs as well as a training manual to help first responders understand autism and how to manage potential issues and behaviors during an emergency response. The goal of using the sensory kit is to make these situations as stress-free as possible so that everyone remains safe, especially when encountering paramedics and emergency situations in the community.

LoBue partnered with Elwood’s SEPTA and the Elwood Public Library to spread her message about the importance of sensory kits and how they can benefit people with autism and sensory processing issues.

She involved the Elwood community to provide sensory kits for the Greenlawn Fire Department’s ambulances and those of nearby towns such as Cold Spring Harbor, Deer Park, East Northport, Eatons Neck, Halesite and Melville. In addition, SUNY Binghamton incorporated LoBue’s sensory kits onboard their student-run ambulance exchange that not only serves the SUNY campus but also the greater Binghamton area.

LoBue’s leadership on this project led to her being invited to be the guest speaker at a recent Girl Scouts Silver Award ceremony, where she was asked to discuss her project and encourage younger girls to pursue their Gold Award. She also met with her troop for firsthand training and created a guideline on the steps for earning the Gold Award.