Two Baldwin High School graduates earn their Girl Scout Gold Award

Girl Scouts of Nassau County have honored Baldwin residents Daniella McCoy and Sterling Young-Wells 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, they have for improving their community and the world around them. McCoy and Young-Wells were presented with their Gold Awards at the Girl Scouts of Nassau County’s 2022 Gold Awards Ceremony, joining a group of 53 young women from throughout Nassau County.

“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,” he said.

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.

McCoy’s Gold Award Project, titled The Essential Giveback, focused on recognizing the value of her community’s essential workers during the pandemic and teaching elementary students the importance of being empathetic. She led discussions with students from Plaza Elementary School, her alma mater, to help them understand the unseen, hard work of local essential workers.

She also worked with students to create and distribute gifts for essential workers. They also planted a tree in the essential workers’ names at her MyCoy’s local community garden. Her project will be carried on by sister Girl Scouts who will continue to give back and show their appreciation to these amazing essential workers. McCoy is a recent graduate of Baldwin High School and will attend Hofstra University in the fall.

For her Gold Award Project, called Operation Body Positivity, Young-Wells took on the challenge of educating teenage girls on the importance of body positivity and body neutrality. She focused on positive and negative impacts of social media when it comes to influencing ideas about body image. Sterling created a survey to understand how her target audience views body image and how they are impacted societal expectations of beauty.

Young-Wells held presentations and created many resources including an information pamphlet, as well as a video presentation. The materials are now being used by local troop leaders and with Project Independence, an informational resource on body positivity and body neutrality. Young-Wells is a Baldwin High School alumna and recently completed her freshman year at Clemson University.

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.