14 Rockland County Girl Scouts Earn Gold Awards for Outstanding Achievements

These girls completed a variety of service-based projects in order to be considered for the highest honor a Girl Scout can earn.

By Jacqueline Neber March 26, 2019

This year, 85 Girl Scouts in the Hudson Valley have been recognized with Gold Awards, the highest national award Girl Scouts can earn—and 14 of the Scouts are from Rockland County. Earning a Gold Award is considered a remarkable achievement. Each Girl Scout completed a rigorous, carefully thought out project in order to receive the award; each project revolved around helping others in their community. The girls were honored at a ceremony featuring a speech by Marie Reger, CEO of Girl Scouts Heart of the Hudson, and a keynote address by Amy Frisbie. Frisbie was honored in 2001 with the Tribute to Women of Achievement, Young Women award, which was presented to her by the YWCA of Orange County and then-Sarah Wells Girl Scout Council, now known as Girl Scouts Heart of the Hudson.

“I am honored to congratulate these outstanding Girl Scouts,” Reger said. “Gold Award Girl Scouts are young women of extraordinary achievement and demonstrated outstanding leadership, organizational, and networking skills. They are well-prepared to become our community, business, and civic leaders one day.

Josephine Buckley, Kimberly Cavanaugh, Lisa Clarke, Michaela Davidson, Alessandra Noelle Enderley, Juliana Feeney, Anafrancesca Impeduglia, Anna Elizabeth McManus, Clare McNamara, Kate Naughton, Tara Patale, Amy Puthumana, Gina Ruotolo, and Karen Zollinger are all Gold Award recipients who hail from Rockland County. Some of their projects include:

Building a trail for those grieving at the Joe Raso Hospice Residence
Creating a blog dedicating to helping teenage girls live healthy lifestyles
Teaching community members to sew pillowcases and pillows, and donating them to a children’s hospital
Creating a veterans memorial garden
Teaching crochet to teenagers and donating knit caps to newborns at Good Samaritan Hospital

According to a Girl Scout Research Institute report on how Girl Scouts prepares girls for adulthood, being a Scout helps participants develop positive senses of self, life satisfaction, leadership, life success, community service, and civic engagement skills. When compared to non-Scout alumnae, more than 90 percent of Scouts attributed their life successes to being a Scout, and said they felt they wouldn’t have had access to such unique programming as part any other organization. The projects the Rockland County Girl Scouts completed illustrate their burgeoning civic engagement and service skills.

Frisbie pointed out that while these projects and awards demonstrate the winners’ commitment to serving their communities, their ability to help others has only just begun.

“You ladies have set quite a bar through your Gold Award projects. But trust in yourselves, trust me. You can push that bar higher, higher than you ever imagined,” Frisbie said. “Your strength will surprise you. Your abilities are limitless. The opportunity you all have to continue to raise the bar for future generations, for yourself it is imperative to our success.”

Main Image: From top left: Clare McNamara, Troop #40016, Michaela Davidson, Troop #40842, Kimberly Cavanagh, Troop #40821, Alessandra Noelle Enderley, Troop #40773, Karen Zollinger, Troop #40736. From bottom left: Gina Ruotolo, Troop #40773, Lisa Clarke, Troop #40583, Anafrancesca Impeduglia, Troop #40773, Anna Elizabeth McManus, Troop #40792.

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