These amazing Lynbrook teens earned a prestigious award. Read to find out why.

Girl Scouts of Nassau County recently celebrated 55 local Girl Scouts who are members of the 2023 Girl Scout Gold Award class who made a sustainable impact, addressing causes they care about in their communities. Lynbrook residents Ryan Benvenuto and Sofia Yaker were among 55 Girl Scouts throughout Nassau County who reached this milestone.

“Each of the Girl Scouts who earned their Gold Award this year showed fortitude, diligence and enthusiasm in creating and executing a plan to act on a societal issue,” said Randell Bynum, CEO of Girl Scouts of Nassau County. “We are very proud and impressed by each of them for reaching their goals and leaving a legacy with their communities. Their dedication is evident and their hard work has touched countless lives.”

Girls in grades 9-12 begin their Gold Award journeys by identifying a civic or social issue that holds importance to them. Next, a Girl Scout builds a team to support her project with a mission to create a positive impact in her community. Gold Award projects are coordinated so that they can continue long after girls earn their award by establishing nonprofit organizations, publishing books to be added to school library collections, implementing classroom lessons to be taught for years to come or other initiatives to create lasting change.

Through the process, Gold Award Girl Scouts become innovative problem-solvers, empathetic leaders, confident public speakers, and focused project managers, while educating and inspiring others. They learn resourcefulness, tenacity, and decision-making skills, giving them an edge personally and professionally. As they take action to transform their communities, Gold Award Girl Scouts gain tangible skills and prove they’re the leaders our world needs.

For Benvenuto’s project, “ShelfCare,” she created a book club of the same name that that focuses on teen mental health issues through a partnership with Random House Children’s Books. Her mission was to find books that concentrate on mental health and use that as a tool for teens to open up about relatable issues. Benvenuto had students and teachers fill out surveys to gauge how they felt about teen mental health, where the teens cited social media and academic pressures as the main drivers of their stress. Benvenuto launched a website, ShelfCare.org, to sustain her project and share the message with teens.

Through her project, “My (Mascot) Emotions/ I Am All About Colors,” Yaker led an art-supply drive to create coloring buckets for children. Each bucket contained an original coloring book and crayons for children to use to explore their emotions through the use of color. She developed a color wheel for children to demonstrate how colors help them to understand and navigate their emotions. She tied this to her community by giving presentations and donating art buckets to Girl Scout troops, recreation centers, day camps, and hospitals.

Yaker hopes her community will continue this project every year in May for Mental Health Awareness Month.