girl scouts of the colonial coast
Angela, a Virginia Beach Girl Scout, has earned the Gold Award, the highest honor and
achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.
For her project, Angela focused on educating the
community about sand safety. When her brother was a child, he fell into a hole
he was digging at the beach and it collapsed on him, suffocating him. He was
buried for 20 minutes, which caused a severe anoxic brain injury, leading to
severe disabilities.
“Prior to beginning my Gold Award project, I viewed
my brother’s accident as simply an issue within my family,” Angela said. “This
project helped me realize that this is an accident that could happen to anyone
in my community, and I felt the need to take action.”
Angela worked with the aquatic staff at the City of Virginia Beach Parks and Recreation
Department to develop a lesson plan about sand safety that is now taught in the
Learn to Swim classes at recreation centers in Virginia Beach. The lesson
focuses on sand hole collapses, but also teaches children about germs in sand,
protecting themselves from hot sand and what to do if they get sand in their
eyes. Angela also created a brochure and poster to go along with the lesson.
In order to reach even
more people, Angela placed her brochures at the Virginia Beach Visitor Center
and the Oceanfront Library and hosted an informational booth at Scout Ready, a
safety and emergency preparedness expo. Angela plans to continue to educate as
many people as she can about sand safety and hopes to be able to work with
local elementary schools to educate their students about sand safety.
The Gold Award requires girls to identify an issue
in the community and carry out a Take Action project to address the matter
through leadership work. Nationwide, less than six percent of eligible Girl
Scouts earn the Gold Award, which adds Angela to an elite group of female
leaders across the country with the honor. In 2016, Girl Scouts are celebrating
100 years of girls changing the world during the centennial year of the Girl
Scout Gold Award.
