Whether she is volunteering, selling cookies, or learning how to be the best person she can be, a Girl Scout exhibits honor, leadership and selflessness.
Emily Lyons, a senior here at Rhinebeck High School, is in the process of achieving the prestigious Girl Scout Gold Award—the highest ranking award you can receive as a Girl Scout. Currently, she is working on paperwork and dealing with the setbacks that are occuring during the process because of the virus outbreak.
To receive this award, you must go through a seven step process that takes a minimum of 80 hours. The first step is choosing an issue, the second step is investigating, the third step is getting help, the fourth step is creating a plan, the fifth step is presenting your plan and getting feedback, the sixth step is taking action, and the seventh step is educating and inspiring.
As the daughter of a troop leader and little sister to another Gold Award achiever, Emily was practically born to achieve this award.
For her project, Emily chose to address the issue of pollution. She talked about how the county-wide plastic ban was great, but she was concerned that the paper bags that replaced them require cutting down thousands of trees. Emily wanted to work to create reusable bags that people could use instead of paper bags. She came up with the slogan: “One bag at a time,” and painted it on about 120 bags.
But she faced a challenge: a lot of the grocery stores were denying her the ability to give out these bags, even though they were free. The closest she got was a store telling her to wait until June.
But she plowed through this challenge, telling herself she would not stop until she found the right grocery store.
After presenting to both Tops, and the Rhinebeck Environmental Club, Emily found people who wanted to give out her bags.
Emily told us that this award means a lot to her, but more importantly she wishes to convey to people that we should all be using reusable bags.
2020 is Emily’s Last year as a girl scout, and she is going out with a bang. All of us here at Rhinebeck Reality are so proud of her.