The ELLM Association of Girl Scouts honored four girls of Troop 2188 from the area by awarding them the Gold Award, the highest earned achievement in Girl Scouts. The ceremony was held on June 25, 2012 in Lynbrook High School auditorium.
Gold Award Recipients[]
For her Gold award project, she continued with the theme of healthy eating that she had delved into as part of her Gold Award prerequisites. Working with a nutritionist, Gina put together an informative presentation on healthy eating and the components of a healthy diet that she delivered to many groups throughout Nassau County, including Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, a local Homemakers group and a group at Lynbrook Library. As part of her presentations, Gina included a demonstration of smoothie making, using fruit, yogurt and milk and encouraged groups to participate. Gina gave her groups not only the recipes for Smoothies, but lasting memories of how delicious healthy eating can be.
Mary Obanhein
She came to her Gold Award with a passion for three things — art, the environment, and working with children – and her Gold Award project encompassed all three. Working with the staff at the Center for Science, teaching and learning at Tanglewood Preserve, Mary developed outdoor art programs for preschoolers and created outdoor benches where art supplies she had donated could be stored for those programs. She piloted these programs by offering a special art program for preschoolers during the Our Lady of Peace carnival weekend. After finalizing her program, Mary presented the staff at Tanglewood with a written description of the activities so that the staff could continue using her program to help children enjoy art and the outdoors simultaneously.
Marion Schwaner
She became acquainted with Harvest House, a homeless shelter in Uniondale, several years ago, and longed to start a vegetable garden for its residents. She made this dream a reality by working with the director of the greenhouse at Nassau University Medical Center to plan out a garden for the shelter and arrange for donations of plants from the greenhouse. Marion then inspired a crew of volunteers to clear the planting area and plant the garden and arranged for the garden to be watered, cared for and harvested. She also presented the shelter with tips that she compiled for planting and maintaining a garden and recipes developed with the help of a nutritionist. Throughout her project, Marion involved residents of the shelter in the care of the garden and inspired them to carry on this work.
For her Gold Award project, she reached out to support organizations that assist teenage mothers and their newborns by creating a website that will help to spread the word about their specific needs to those wishing to volunteer or make donations. Megan has inspired and enlisted the help of her fellow Squirettes at the St. Mary’s Knights of Columbus to maintain this website after her High School graduation. The site, www.empoweringourwomen.webs.com will also inspire those who visit it to continue to give these young mothers and their newborns much needed support.