Gold Award

Roma A.

Block the Bleed: Education to Empower

Roma recognized the limited preparation schools in America have on combating gun violence situations. She noticed there is limited education and awareness in communities of children about what to do in these types of situations. She addressed the issue by spreading bleeding control awareness through presentations in her local community to children of various ages, from elementary schools to high schoolers. She led her team by educating them about her project, learning from/incorporating their knowledge when making the bleeding control presentation, teaching them how they can support participants during demonstrations, helping spread awareness about fundraising efforts, explaining to them how they can keep the audience attentive and engaged during the presentations, and how to support her during her presentations. To keep her project sustainable, Roma’s first aid squad will continuously teach incoming cadets bleeding control every year during these drills in support of sustaining my Gold Award Project. This will help disseminate this important skill to young adults in my community in the years to come and spread awareness of the public learning bleeding control skills.

Annika B.

Take Charge of Your Health

Annika’s Gold Award, “Take Charge of Your Health,” aimed to address the issue of health, fitness, and nutrition among children and adolescents. During adolescence, nutrition and physical activity influences growth and development of the body. Making healthy decisions about what you eat and drink, how active you are, affects how you live the rest of your life. Throughout my Gold Award, she hosted seminars and town events about practicing good health and nutrition among her target audience. I also created a website full of recipes, interviews with nutritionists, and a quiz app spreading awareness about how to live a healthy lifestyle.

Leah B.

Cultivating Cultural Confidence and Discovering Jewish Identity

For her Gold Award Project, Leah wanted to address the issue of a loss of confidence in young Jewish students as a result of antisemitism. This problem has become even more pressing in the past few years, and as someone who encountered various antisemitic situations or actions, Leah knew firsthand just how detrimental the effects on one’s confidence could be. For her project, she began by painting a mural in the education wing of her temple for all students to see when they entered. She then created a book of lesson plans that were educational and fun, and she taught a few of these lessons to the Hebrew School students. Seeing the impact that she had on these children inspired her to reach more people than just those in her temple. To accomplish this, Leah created a website and published her plans online. She also distributed her book of lesson plans to other temples in her area, with copies of word searches, crosswords, activity materials, and travel brochures to be used with the respective lessons. Having confidence in one’s identity is necessary to form a positive and happy childhood, and through her Gold Award project, Leah was able to touch the lives of many young students. She is so grateful to all members of her team, her family, and everyone at Girl Scouts for helping her make this difference!

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Isabella C.

The Power of Words

Ever since she was young, Bella loved to go to school and to read books. However, Bella began to recognize just how many students not only in the world, but even just in New Jersey struggle to be able to afford the school supplies that are necessary for success. So, for her Girl Scout Gold Award project titled, “The Power of Words,” Bella led a collection for school supplies and books in her local community. She worked with the Christian Service Leadership Team at her school to spread the word of the collection among her peers, advertised to her dance studio the importance of her collection, and shared her project through social media. After going through all the donations, Bella assembled each of the backpacks collected with all of the necessary school supplies, ranging from pencils to folders to binders to flashcards. She also made activity sheets that corresponded with the collected books to create a fun way for the students to get extra comprehension practice. After distributing and visiting the Jerome Dunn Academy in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Bella could not be happier with the impact she made. Bella loved to see all the students' faces light up when they received the backpacks and books. To make this project sustainable, the Christian Service Leadership Team at Donovan Catholic will continue this collection each year. Bella would love to be able to continue to expand the reaches of her project throughout the years as well and is happy to know that she is making a difference.

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Samantha D.

Bottle Caps to Buddies

Samantha helped to educate and promote proper trash disposal and the importance of keeping our environment clean and minimizing waste for her Gold Award project. As part of minimizing waste, she started a collection of bottle caps, and created brochures that provided information on the proper ways to dispose trash. Samantha found an organization to turn the collected bottles caps into buddy bench’s hoping to encourage the development of forever friendships. She looks forward to making more benches in the future.

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Caleigh D.

Friendship Spectrum

Caleigh’s Gold Award project consisted of writing a novel about her little brother, Ryan, who has autism. She saw the way that autistic people in her high school and community were treated and wanted a way to spread awareness about Autism in childhood to hopefully make the community a more compassionate space for those with disabilities like her brother. She wrote a book called the Friendship Spectrum which is a collection of stories written by her family and friends with autism or those who have children with autism. The book is available on amazon as an eBook and as a physical copy. It is available for teachers to use in their classrooms, and has been donated to multiple school libraries. She also held an event to fund the publishing which consisted of life-sized board games for troops to play with while learning about autism and how it can affect children’s ability to make friends.

Tyler D.

BeYOUtiful Youth

Tyler earned her Bronze Award and Silver Award, and in high school she was determined about getting her Gold Award. COVID Pandemic impacted all of us gravely, but Tyler noticed a significant shift amongst her peers. Noticing a lack of self-confidence, self-esteem, and self-love, she took the initiative to remind her peers that they are loved, appreciated, and they have potential. Her project, “BeYOUtiful Youth!”, had a mission to encourage and motivate youth having a hard time getting back into school socially and academically and going through personal life struggles. She hand sketched and painted 12 motivational quotes and 18 images in her school and at churches. One of her favorites is the quote by Muhammad Ali, “Even the greatest was once a beginner, don’t be afraid to take that first step.” Her hope, to inspire others, came true as she would catch students and faculty stopping and reading her quotes in the hallways or when a teacher or student would make a comment about her work. To fund the necessary supplies, Tyler and her team held a bake sale where they raised $413. She has also hosted numerous workshops with the Black Student Unions she founded at her school because she noticed that in a predominantly white school Black students were oftentimes overlooked. These workshops were open to all and targeted healthy lifestyle choices including managing stress. She donated the leftover funds to Black Girl Smile, an organization dedicated to helping Black women get the necessary tools to be successful on the mental health journey. Throughout the project she has learned how to delegate tasks, lead a team, communicate effectively, and manage her time. She loves this project as not only was this an opportunity to inspire others, but she was also able to explore her creative side.

Aiden E.

Transgender Awareness

Aiden‘s Gold Award project "Educating on Transgender Experiences,“ focused on educating others by providing information about transgender identities, terminology, and issues. Through his project, Aiden was able to help encourage acceptance, understanding, advocacy.

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Caroline F.

Scoop the Poop

During her Girl Scout journey, Caroline noticed a pressing issue in her community - the improper disposal of dog waste, which not only posed environmental risks but also impacted the health of our water, soil, wildlife, and climate. To address this issue, she dedicated over 100 hours of her time and efforts to create meaningful change. Her Gold Award project consisted of multiple initiatives, each aimed at different aspects of the problem. First, she introduced an accountability pledge for dog owners, encouraging them to commit to responsible waste disposal when renewing their dog licenses. She also engaged with dog owners directly, educating them about the importance of proper waste management and its environmental consequences. Additionally, she leveraged the power of social media to raise awareness about the "pawsitively perilous" issue, sharing informative posts and graphics on Instagram to inform and mobilize the community. Her commitment and dedication to this cause garnered significant recognition, with her efforts being featured in two local publications. This culminated in her appearance on the cover of "Community Magazine," which highlighted the impact one person can have in their community. She is truly passionate about preserving the environment and believe that small choices can indeed create substantial positive changes.

Sofia G.

Musical Connections

Sofia learned that her town, Brick NJ, has a large population over 65 years (about 1 in 5 Brick residents) and that about 16% of the NJ population is dealing with isolation and depression in some capacity. Sadly, they both may trigger dementia onset in the long run. She also learned that 9 million Americans will live with some form of dementia in 2030 and that it will increase to around 12 million by 2040. She decided to tackle the problem, aiming to reduce isolation and depression among seniors in her town with her Gold Award project. Since music holds a usually overlooked healing power and has a powerful effect on human brains, to address isolation and depression among seniors in Brick, she created the Musical Connections program, a STEM based, intergenerational, consistent, sustainable, music engagement program to produce a tangible solution in town. To accomplish her goal, she coordinated with Mayor Crate to implement it at the municipal senior center. On top of this, she contacted both the Director of Senior Services to arrange the buses to transport seniors to the program, and the Brick Chamber of Commerce, asking for donations that started a town wide, brand new percussion instrument drive. The drive received generous donations consisting of two karaoke machines, tambourines, maracas, bongos, shakers, wooden sticks and boomwhakers for the seniors to play along each session. She also contacted the Caregiver Volunteers of Central Jersey to train volunteers, as well as local music businesses to donate one hour of their instructors to help the seniors have fun every other month. She reached out to her Brick Township high school clubs (National Honor Society, Drama, Choir, Mayor Student Advisory Board) to recruit volunteers. 80% of the funds in her Girl Scout account went towards buying a shelving unit, bins with lids, and disinfectant to keep the donated items in perfect condition for years to come. She also created lesson plans on how to run the program and trained volunteers to continue with the program when she goes to college, ensuring the program does not fade away in her absence. The Musical Connections program is offered on the first and third Tuesday of each month. Every session is full of music, percussion instruments, good vibes, and friendship that the seniors in Brick look forward to.

Lily L.

Menstrual Empowerment Project

Lily’s Gold Award titled the “Menstrual Empowerment Project'' focused on spreading awareness about menstrual toxic shock and raising money to purchase feminine hygiene products which were donated to local food pantries. By collaborating with local businesses, doctor’s offices and a local women’s club, Lily was able to fundraise almost $2,000. She also set up pamphlets informing women and girls about the symptoms, risks, and preventive measures of menstrual toxic shock. She put these pamphlets in the women’s bathrooms at her school and neighboring schools.

Sydney M.

School Store Project!

Sydney’s Gold Award project addressed the lack of financial knowledge of young adults within her community. To combat this issue, she educated them on safely spending through leading her team to reopen the school store at her old middle school as well as hosting workshops. Sydney reopened her middle school store, hosting fundraisers to raise money to purchase supplies to fill the store, organized the supplies, and taught the student council at the middle school about business finances to keep the school store running. The school store has been successful so far and will be running for many more years to come.

Emma M.

Preserving Our Past

Ever since Emma was a little girl she has been fascinated with history, inspiring her to learn everything there is to know about our past and spurring her passion for “Preserving Our Past,” her Girl Scout Gold Award Project. For her Gold Award project, she made it her mission to organize and create the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shores’ Archive Room programs. The main point of her project was to make sure the members of the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore council know about the archive and the history of the organization. History is an important thing to learn and share with the world, especially if it can help give better insight into what created the world. To make sure her community and the members of the Jersey Shore council knew about the archive room, she created flyers and interactive parts to insure people who wanted to learn could be active in the history. She knew the first step in sharing the history was to make sure the scouts were interested. She used her design skills, including the websites and apps that she learned in school to design logos and graphics to use throughout the project. She knew that to get younger girls involved and wanting to learn and explore, they need some interactive guide, so she created a Junior HERstorian booklet. The booklet has guiding activities that use the artifacts displayed in the archive to teach about the history of the GSJS organization. In addition, she wanted to make sure that everyone got involved, so she created a tour script and a training manual for any new volunteers. It is important to teach and share, so having a website is important, so everyone can discover the archive. At the end of her project, she sent the promotional flyer poster to schools all over Monmouth County, posted it on Instagram, and sent the flyer to be posted on Facebook. She made sure that there were parts for every age to make sure the archive keeps going.

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Lillianna M.

What I want my friends and teammates to know about my type of epilepsy

Lillianna created a website for her Girl Scout Gold Award on Epilepsy Awareness and seizure first aid. She wanted to be able to share information about epilepsy and seizure first aid as it is more common than expected. Did you know that 1 in 26 people have epilepsy and 1 in 10 people experience a seizure? Lillianna's website includes information from interviews and surveys by people who have different types of epilepsy, tests, and procedures she has had to endure, and seizure first aid. Lillianna's goal was to not only share epilepsy awareness and seizure first aid, but to help anyone struggling with epilepsy to know that you are not alone, and you are capable of amazing things.

Leena M.

STEMpowerment

Leena's Gold Award Project, “Stempowerment,” aimed to increase interest and access to STEM education across diverse New Jersey communities. For her project, she created a series of hands-on, fun, and interactive workshops and summer camps at the Middletown Arts Center, Second Street Youth Center, and the Wall Municipal Building. These workshops consisted of engaging lessons, hands-on experiments, and guest scientist visits. She was amazed to see how much her students learned in just one day or one week. With the support of her mentor, Leena wrote a grant proposal to Bristol Myers Squibb to receive funding for her project. She also created a series of short videos which feature DIY, at home experiments. These videos can be found on the Girl Scouts of the Jersey Shore YouTube.

Sabina M.

SproutAhead

Sabina noticed children who fall behind due to lack of motivation in a high-stress environment. To combat this issue, her Gold Award project helped to provide educational resources and positive reinforcement for students who have fallen into the mindset that a letter grade should dictate how they view their intelligence. She created a YouTube channel called SproutAhead and also made a website. The videos detail how to use simple tricks to make mathematic equations easier. She paired with a local daycare called the Peach Pit, which helps kids learn a variety of different subjects. She shared her math videos with the kids at the Peach Pit, who will continue sharing her project with their kids.

Grace R.

Adopt-A-Grandparent

For Grace’s Gold Award, she started a club called Adopt-a-Grandparent at Toms River High School South. She gained permission from the board of education and found an advisor. She gathered and trained members who then went into Brandywine Assisted Living and spent time with dementia patients, playing music for them and having conversations to help them remember things they normally would forget. The club was a success and a similar one has even started in Brick, spreading the impact of this project.

Emilee R.

Fight Fire with Fire

Emilee's Gold Award Project titled, "Fight Fire with Fire,” brought awareness to the fact that volunteer firefighters are in a shortage and desperately needed. As part of her platform, she also wanted to break the barrier in this field to recognize that women can be successful volunteer firefighters too. She discovered that the shortage is not just a local issue but a global issue. This was an topic close to Emilee's heart, having been raised in a family full of volunteer firefighters who gave back their time to the communities they lived in; to include her father, both her grandfathers, and all her uncles. As part of her project she created videos from interviews she did with male & female firefighters and posted them to various social media platforms to inspire men and women to "answer the call". Emilee also developed and ran a successful volunteer recruitment event at her local firehouse in Belmar, NJ which captured the attention of the town council and local newspapers who published the event, further assisting in spreading the message. Throughout her project, she attended many local events such as National Night Out to share her project and raise awareness on the importance of stepping up to volunteer in your community. Lastly, her efforts will live on through the fun patch program she created for young girls to help educate and show them that they too can be a volunteer firefighter.

Jordan R.

Tribute to Police and First Responders

For her Gold Award project, Jordan created a living tribute to the first responders in her hometown of Bayville, NJ that graduated from her high school, Central Regional High School. Jordan gave each branch of first responders a color of the American flag to create a replica of the flag using the first responders’ names, blue for the police, red for firefighters, and white for EMT’s. Jordan highlighted the saying “Heroes are among us.” Her project will be continued by a club in her school and being hung up in the school. The club is in contact with each department of first responders (police, firefighters, EMT) and will be notified when to add new names and the department they were in to continue the tribute and continue to remind the students of the future first responders around them.

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Samantha S.

Cyber Safety and Scam Awareness

Sam’s project focused on educating younger children and senior citizens about internet safety and scam awareness. She aimed to ensure that people had the knowledge to identify and avoid scams, and to make sure that they have resources if they do get scammed. She achieved this by creating presentations for younger Girl Scouts and senior citizens in her community. For the younger Scouts, she prioritized interactivity and entertainment to convey her message, while she focused on making the presentation for the senior citizens easy to understand, even with non-extensive knowledge of computers and the internet. To keep her project sustainable, she shared her presentations with the senior citizen centers she worked with to continue presenting and keeping people aware.

Jayna S.

Public Church Yard Prayer Patio

For her Gold Award project, Jayna focused on the accessibility of the church community to people with differing lifestyles by creating a space where people can gather regardless of time or day. Along with her team, Jayna built an in-ground stone patio in the church yard in front of a sitting area that is accessible to everyone. This helps to connect people with the church community when they may not be able to attend regularly scheduled services due to lifestyle, jobs, and many other conflicts of time.

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Isabella S.

Mental Health Awareness Program

Isabella wanted to inform high school students and staff about the importance and severity of mental health and mental illnesses. Along with her team, they created the Lighthouse Club, and a group of teachers and guidance counselors were able to bring Hope Squad to their school. St. Rose High School is the only school in New Jersey to have a Hope Squad group. After starting the Lighthouse, they had to recruit members and had a table set up at the school club fair. They had over 100 people sign up for the club (25% of the student body) which was amazing. Many people came to the Lighthouse Club meetings as a stress relief from the rest of the school day. Many different people came in to present different things that students might struggle with during high school (study skills, sleeping schedules, organization, eating habits, etc.) In the beginning meetings of Hope Squad, after people were chosen, they had to complete QPR (Question. Persuade. Refer.) training where we could identify someone that was showing signs of suicidal ideation and/or if they were in crisis, how they could help them in the moment, and then get them help for the future. They also had to take surveys throughout the training to make sure they were fit to be a Hope Squad member and it wasn’t taking a toll on their own mental health. The St. Rose High School students and staff will keep this Gold Award project afloat indefinitely.

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Francesca S.

Summertime…to Give!: Increasing Awareness of the Need for Donations at Children’s Hospitals

Francesca targeted the issue of children's hospitals often lacking donations year-round through her Gold Award project. Around the holidays there are usually a lot of donations, but the supply gained from this dwindles and by the time summer arrives, the hospital is running low again. Her project consisted of raising awareness throughout her community, along with fundraising efforts to donate to the Bristol Myers Squibb Children's Hospital, which included a Nintendo Switch and multiple other games. She put an article in her local newspaper, contacted the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Pediatric Cancer Foundation, and the Children's National Hospital Foundation. To make sure her project is sustainable, she connected with her schools’ National Honor Society Chapter to continue it as one of their charity events.

Julia S.

Costumes Without Cost

For her Gold Award project, Julia addressed the issue of the inequality, poverty, lack of resources, and upcycling for children in need during the Halloween season. This project not only provided children with the opportunity to have a costume for Halloween, but it also promoted recycling and reusing. By collecting costumes from families and redistributing them, Julia and her team were able to reduce waste and teach children about the importance of sustainability. Additionally, seeing the smiles on the children's faces as they picked out their costume was a rewarding and heartwarming experience. To continue this experience for children in her community, she worked with her local Elks lodge who will keep this project going.

Olivia S.

Beanies for Babies

For her Gold Award, Olivia merged her hobby of crocheting and a cause close to her heart (infants in the NICU), to donate over 100 hats for Centrastate's NICU unit. Olivia collected donations of yarn and other materials from her community through social media posts and gathered a team of volunteers to help her pick up donations and assist with hats. Along with making the hats by herself, Olivia also organized and taught multiple workshops at her local retirement home, where the residents were able to crochet even more hats. When Olivia donated the shipment to Centrastate, her donation was met with much appreciation and will greatly help the NICU unit.

Sophia U.

Trailblazers for Lauren’s Light

Empowering teenaged girls to be bold, to be boundless, and to be beautiful, Sophia started a club for her Gold Award project called Trailblazers. This club hosted programs and sessions on various tracks for girls ages 14-18 in my high school. She believed that young women in this age group need a resource to turn to for help and guidance as they move through their high school years. The club had a "Wellness" component, a "Path to Success" series, and general classes on beauty, health, and self-care. Resources and speakers were brought in from Lauren's Light, a not-for-profit started in memory of her dear friend Lauren Hewski, and their network. In addition, the club determined ways to give back to the community in various ways. For example, in October, for breast cancer awareness month they organized fundraisers to give back to breast cancer patients through T-shirt sales. During Christmas they volunteered and adopted local families with teenaged girls for gifts by partnering with the RAINE Foundation. They also recently hosted a clothing drive for teenaged girls who are less fortunate. There will also be a three-day teen event called the B3Fest; the Trailblazers will be volunteering over the three days with a community barbecue, a 5K color run, and a teen expo. This fundraiser will help fund future club programs and give back to teenaged girls who are in financial need with educational scholarships.

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Gillian W.

Sitting in Peace

Gillian noticed that elderly people and disabled individuals need to have access to nature and providing benches enables them to enjoy the scenery while taking breaks, and safety hazards in the area, Pond by Silo, Wall Township. Gillian addressed the root cause of the issue by receiving permission to plant two new Willow trees by the pond, while also replacing two old overgrown and broken benches. She planted new plants around the benches and removed dead trees that were a threat to the public because of their positioning. She also built and painted bird houses and an owl house for birds to build their nests safely. Gillian and her team addressed the root cause of her Gold Award issue by beautifying and re-flourishing a beautiful walking trail in Wall Township.

Congratulations to Gold Award Girl Scout Francesca, who is the 2024 Gold Award Scholarship recipient of $5,000!

Learn more about her Gold Award Story below.