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Fair Rockville Centre Girl Scouts earn Gold Awards
Five Rockville Centre Girl Scouts recently earned their Gold Awards, the highest honor in the Girl Scouts. Deandra Denton, Emily Edwards, Alexandra Kosakoff, Brooke Williams and Kyra Wills-Umdenstock all earned their Gold Awards.
Each girl spent more than 80 hours over the past year planning, executing and presenting the results of her project, which aimed to make the world a better place for others as well as herself.
Approximately one million Girl Scout alumnae have developed Gold Award projects that addressed local or global issues. After identifying an area of interest, a successful Gold Award recipient performs hours of research and prepares a project proposal to be submitted for feedback and approval to the Girl Scouts Council before embarking on her project. The Girl Scout presents her final conclusions as the last step of the journey.
The five recipients each tackled a project that held a deep significance to them.
The well-being of her community was the driving force behind Denton’s project, “Stop then Go!” She recognized the need for a stop light at the intersection of Long Beach Road and Weir Street in Hempstead, a dangerous location with many automobile and pedestrian accidents. She spent hours collecting signatures via online petitions and door-to-door visits to her neighbors to garner the support and advocate for the installation of a traffic light.
Edwards’s project, “Dance Empowering Girls,” addressed the importance of building self-confidence. She researched how body image impacts self-image and used her talent and skill to help build self-esteem through dance. Edwards provided many hours of dance instruction that culminated in a performance. The program will be continued by the volunteers that assisted her with the project.
Lack of community awareness about childhood cancer led to Kosakoff’s project, “For the Kids Club.” As a result of her summer research project at Brown University, Kosakoff set out to educate her community on the prevalence of childhood cancer and offer them volunteer opportunities to make a difference.
Williams’s “Ballerina in a Box” Dance Therapy Program, incorporated dance and movement into an existing music therapy program at the Cancer Center for Kids at Winthrop University Hospital. Studies show that dance and movement significantly boost the healing process. Williams created a program that was so well-received that the cancer center has committed to add her program as a form of therapy for children.
The focus of Wills-Umdenstock’s Gold Award project, “Design and Technology Career Day and Workshops,” was to educate girls from ages 9 to 16 about careers in the field of technology. She utilized the computer lab at her school to raise awareness and interest among girls in the male dominated field of technology.
The girls were honored at a local ceremony on June 16 at Wilson Elementary School. In addition to the five Gold Award recipients, local troops also honored 14 girls who received their Silver Awards and 30 who earned their Bronze Awards.
