#Middlebury #GirlScouts
Gabriella Gagas holds her Girl Scout Gold Award certificate and wears her new Gold Award pin. With her are, left to right Gold Award mentor Cat Fedorchek of Newtown, Troop 64076 Leader Kristin Murray, Gagas and project mentor Elizabeth Roth of Cheshire. (Marjorie Needham photo)
By MARJORIE NEEDHAM
Gabriella Gagas, 17, of Middlebury Girl Scout Troop 64076 recently earned the highest award a Girl Scout can earn – the Gold Award. Mentor Elizabeth Roth of Cheshire presented Gabriella with her certificate and pin during a ceremony at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Waterbury June 21. With that, Gabriella joined the five to six percent of Girl Scouts who earn this prestigious award.
Troop Leader Kristin Murray said, “Gabriella worked really hard on her Gold Award and I am extremely proud of her efforts. Gabriella is a great role model for younger Girl Scouts and truly embodies the values of Girls Scouts of Connecticut as well as our troop.”
To earn the Gold Award, each girl must design a long-lasting project, get it approved by the Girl Scout Council and then spend 80 or more hours completing her project. The rewards of completing the project are more than the certificate and gold pin each girl receives or the benefits to her community. Gold award recipients enter the U.S. Armed Forces one rank higher, and some universities and colleges offer scholarships to Gold Award earners.
To earn her award, Gagas designed and implemented a program to provide healthy foods rather than sugar-laden foods like doughnuts during coffee hours at her church – Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church in Waterbury. She said, “When I was brainstorming, I thought about the fact I go to church every Sunday, and I could make coffee hour better.”
Her project included finding recipes for healthier coffee hour foods, presenting the idea of healthier foods at three different coffee hours at her church – in December 2017 and February and March 2018 – and creating a printed guide for those who host coffee hours. For those coffee hours, she prepared the healthy foods being served, along with a pamphlet detailing the benefits of those foods.
The booklet she put together, “A Guide to Hosting Coffee Hour,” encouraged church members to host a coffee hour and explained how to do so. It also suggested foods the host/hostess might want to avoid serving and included five healthy-eating recipes: Banana-Zucchini Bread, Light Fruit and Nut Granola, Chocolate Chip Cannoli Cups, Mini Cranberry Tarts and YiaYia’s Healthy Koulourakia (developed by Gabriella’s grandmother, Nicki Gagas).
Three women in addition to Kristin Murray mentored Gabriella during this project, two from the Girl Scout Council – Roth, mentioned earlier, and Cat Fedorchek of Newtown – and Katie Tzepos of Rhode Island, a nutritionist who educated her on the importance of health eating and advised her on healthy coffee hour foods.
Gabriella is the daughter of Heather and Nick Gagas. She is a junior at Pomperaug High School and plans to study accounting and finance when she graduates.
Kristin said Gabriella is the first of five troop members in the Gold Award program to complete her project. Two of those troop members, Jillian Murray and Cassie Reilly, both 17 and both also juniors at Pomperaug High School, were at Gabriella’s ceremony.
Jillian said her project is to collect donations of items like winter coats, food, toys and shoes and bring them to a free medical clinic in Bridgeport for distribution. Cassie is developing her project, which will be to create a lacrosse program for an elementary school in Waterbury. It likely will include providing the students with sticks and then teaching them how to play lacrosse. “The idea is to make it so kids can play a fun game,” Cassie said.
A recent press release from the Girl Scouts said they have just introduced an extended-year membership opportunity for new members. Both girls and adults who have not joined Girl Scouts before can register for a 16-month, $35 prorated membership that allows them to begin Girl Scouts during the summer and then transition into the traditional troop experience in the fall. That’s nearly 16 months of membership for the price of 12. Register at gsofct.org or call 800-922-2770.
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