girl scouts of the colonial coast
Olivia
Dayag has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor and achievement a
girl can earn in Girl Scouts. Olivia is a rising senior at Green Run
Collegiate.
For her project, “Throw
Like a Girl,” Olivia used her love for track and field to help middle school
girls with low self-esteem build confidence while participating in sports. She
used her personal experience as a young athlete to springboard into a larger
discussion and take action by showing girls they don’t have to be a certain
size to play sports.
“A great way to build
confidence is through participation in sports, but some girls may not realize
that there are sports where their size is an advantage,” she said.
Olivia enlisted the help of
some of her former teachers from Larkspur Middle School where she attended and implemented
her program. She made a video of herself doing shot put to use in the
presentations to girls considering becoming athletes. She presented to multiple
audiences, including a group of girls at the “When I Grow Up” outreach event
hosted by the Chesapeake Zetas, the Chesapeake chapter for the Zeta Phi Beta
Sorority Inc.
Her message reached over 50
girls, allowing Olivia to see the impact of her project. A lot of them wanted
to join the track and field team at their schools after her presentation.
“By the end of my
presentation, they related to my experiences and seemed pleased to have learned
that throwing could be an ideal place for them to become comfortable in their
own skin.”
Olivia’s project will be
sustained by the Chesapeake Zetas and Ruffner Middle School, another place she
was able to visit and share her message.
