Serafina Bruchhauser, of Franklin Square, earns Girl Scout Gold Award

Every year, roughly 3,300 Girl Scouts earn the Gold Award. A Franklin Square native accomplished the milestone last month.

Girl Scouts in the high school grades start their Gold Award projects by identifying an issue that is importance to them. The aim of the project is to establish something that will positively impact the communities long after it is finished, whether it be a published book, a website, a nonprofit organization, a classroom lesson program or another initiative.

Serafina Bruchhauser, of Franklin Square, recently earned her Gold Award when she designed a website for current and future pet owners that includes resources that are tailored to the needs of common pet species, including dogs, cats, rabbits, hamsters, fish and birds. She completed the project with Troop 1020, her project adviser, Chelsey Knight, and her Gold mentor, Cheryl Hatata, of the Nassau County Girl Scout council. Bruchhauser devoted 95 hours to the project.

“I hope that people can use the website as a resource so that they feel more comfortable when they get pets, and they know how to take care of them,” Bruchhauser said. “Or they don’t get a pet that they can’t take care of, which will decrease animal abuse and neglect.”

The website is called the Lola Project, in honor of her childhood dog, Lola. It also stands as an acronym for “leading others to love animals.” It can be found at Bit.ly/LolaProject.

Bruchhauser’s project focused on mitigating animal abuse caused by human neglect. The website touches on household items that are poisonous to pets, feeding routines, signs that a pet is sick and overall pet care, and includes a frequently-asked-questions tab for current or prospective pet owners.

“I made it so that pet owners, if they’re going to adopt maybe a new pet for the first time or another pet, they can really think about these things before taking on a responsibility that they’re not fully equipped to,” Bruchhauser said of the website. “Hopefully, through that, it will lessen animal abuse or give them more information and resources so they can become better pet owners.”

Many people who adopt pets can be blinded by the love an animal gives them, Bruchhauser feels, but they don’t always realize the responsibilities that come with that adoption.

“Life happens— you now have a new pet that could be having behavioral issues, and they don’t know how to take care of them,” she said. “Sometimes people — they don’t have bad intentions, but they can’t give the pet the proper care it needs. Sometimes the pet needs medication and the owner didn’t think about whether they could afford that.”

Bruchhauser graduated from Long Island Lutheran High School in Glen Head in 2023. She is in her second year studying veterinary technology at LIU Post. Throughout her Gold Award project, she shadowed veterinarians at Mid Island Pet Hospital, in Hicksville. She started working there in 2023. As she moves forward in her studies, she is looking forward to getting more hands-on experience.

She decided that she wanted to become a veterinarian at age 3, when her family adopted Lola, a Wheaten Terrier. “I just loved her so much, and I realized I wanted to take care of animals,” Bruchhauser said.

The purpose of the Gold Award is to help the Girl Scouts become innovative problem solvers, empathetic leaders, confident public speakers and focused project managers who educate and inspire others.

“Every Girl Scout who earned their Gold Award this year demonstrated remarkable resilience, dedication and passion in developing and implementing a plan to tackle a societal challenge,” Rande Bynum, chief executive of the Girl Scouts of Nassau County, said in a news release. “We are immensely proud and impressed by each one of them for achieving their goals and making a lasting impact in their communities.”

Gold Award Girl Scouts are more likely to fill leadership roles at work and in their personal lives, according to Girl Scouts of America. A vast majority of those who have earned the award say that the skills they learned helped them succeed professionally, and 72 percent said the having the award on the resume helped them get scholarships.

For more information, go to GirlScouts.org.