Local Oceanside Teens Earn Prestigious Girl Scout Gold Award

OCEANSIDE, NEW YORK (JUNE 2022) — Girl Scouts of Nassau County recently honored Oceanside residents Allison Christel and Gabriella Prendergast for earning their Gold Awards. The Gold Award is the highest and most prestigious award a Girl Scout can achieve, as it recognizes the remarkable dedication she has for improving their community and the world around them. Allison and Gabriella were presented with their Gold Awards at the Girl Scouts of Nassau County's 2022 Gold Awards Ceremony, joining an elite group of 53 young women from throughout Nassau County who earned the highest honor a Girl Scout can achieve.

“The recipients of this year’s Gold Awards have displayed diligence, compassion and altruism in approaching issues facing their communities,” said Randell Bynum, the chief executive officer of Girl Scouts of Nassau County. “Their efforts have not gone unnoticed in their communities and their impacts will leave an imprint for years to come. I applaud them for addressing topics like social justice, mental health, the environment and more, while putting forth solutions to create a better world.”

The Gold Award program is designated for girls in grades 9-12 and is intended to help girls explore civic and social issues they are passionate about pursuing. The process of earning a Gold Award begins with a Girl Scout identifying a civic or social issue, drafting a plan to approach the issue and, lastly, partnering with volunteers or community leaders to implement it. The plan implemented needs to be sustainable and reach beyond the Girl Scout’s personal community.
For her Gold Award Project, “Self-defense and Awareness Skills for Middle School Children,”

Allison Christel trained middle school students in self-defense skills. Her goal was to provide a learning tool to help children avoid potentially dangerous situations and how to get out of these situations. Allison wrote, directed, filmed, and edited a series of self-defense awareness videos using resources at her dojo and her broadcasting class. She led virtual workshops to teach and demonstrate these skills for children. Allison worked on incorporating her lessons into the gym curriculum at Oceanside Middle School. Her videos can be accessed through her YouTube channel, and will continue to be referenced by participants from her online workshops and sensei. Allison is an alumna of Oceanside High School and is studying Film and Production at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

Gabriella Prendergast educated middle school and high school students about stress for her Gold Award Project “Don’t Stress Out.” She identified the need for her project by witnessing how overwhelmed her peers were because of the changes in her school due to the pandemic. She created a presentation explaining what stress is, why we feel stress, and techniques to manage it.

The information she collected for her presentation can be found on her website, and Oceanside High School will continue to utilize Gabriella’s project to help other students identify and handle stress. Gabriella is a recent graduate of Oceanside High School and will study nursing at Molloy University in the fall.

According to the Girl Scout Research Institute, girls who have achieved their Gold Award, experience greater life success due to a greater sense of self, satisfaction, leadership, life achievements, community service and civic engagement. Gold Award Girl Scouts who enlist in the U.S. Armed Forces may receive a higher pay grade and can receive scholarships or other recognition from most colleges or universities.
For more information about the Girl Scouts of Nassau County and the Gold Award program, visit www.gsnc.org.

###

We Are Girl Scouts: Girl Scouts bring their dreams to life and work together to build a better world. Through programs in Nassau County, across Long Island and from coast to coast, Girl Scouts of all backgrounds and abilities can be unapologetically themselves as they discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges—whether they want to climb to the top of a tree or the top of their class, lace up their boots for a hike or advocate for climate justice, or make their first best friends. Backed by trusted adult volunteers, mentors, and millions of alumni, Girl Scouts leads the way as they find their voices and make changes that affect the issues most important to them. To join us, volunteer, reconnect, or donate, visit girlscouts.org.