Enfield Girl Scout Emily Birdsey recently received the Gold Award.
Photo credit: Girl Scouts of Connecticut
ENFIELD — Emily Birdsey of the Enfield Girl Scout Troop earned the most prestigious honor in the Girl Scouts of Connecticut organization, the Gold Award, for her community-impacting project.
“I was really excited,” said Birdsey. “After all the hard work I put in, it was a lot of fun. The Gold Award to me, is giving back to the community with all that you’ve learned over the years in Girl Scouts and making a big difference in the world.”
Birdsey was inspired by her older sister to become a Girl Scout and has been one for 13 years. She told Reminder Publishing it’s an amazing group of females who empower each other to learn new things and give back to their community.
Girl Scouts of Connecticut is a statewide nonprofit that is dedicated to building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. CEO Elicia Pegues Spearman said, “To earn the Gold Award, a Girl Scout identifies an issue affecting her community, drafts a plan to address a root cause, and then leads a team of volunteers to implement it. When the project is complete, Gold Award Girl Scouts and their teams will have made a sustainable impact on their community that continues to last beyond their involvement.”
Birdsey first learned about the Gold Award from her troop leader and fellow Girl Scouts. She wanted to earn the award because she wanted to continue giving back to her community.
For her project, Birdsey created a mental health and wellness initiative that uses art as a tool for children and teens to express emotions, build coping skills and support well-being. She designed an activity booklet featuring art-based exercises and led hands-on sessions through the Enfield Public Library and Hartford Boys & Girls Club.
“I chose mental health and art for my project because I personally struggle with mental health and art is my passion,” said Birdsey. “When I struggled through my mental health, I used art to help me, and I wanted to share what I do with other people.”
Birdsey completed over 100 hours of work and her project leaves lasting resources for community leaders to continue offering creative mental health programming.
“I’m very happy with the outcome,” Birdsey replied. “I love seeing how it impacts the kids and how excited they got after I came. I felt that I met my goals including my booklet which I gave to the Boys & Girls Club and my local library so they can continue on leading those events.”
Birdsey will be attending Central Connecticut State University where she’ll major in art and hopes to become an art teacher in the future.
