14 Worcester County Girl Scouts Honored for Helping the Community

WORCESTER, Mass. — Girl scout Emily Synan wanted to make an impact in her community. As a teenager, the scope of what she could do, especially during a pandemic, seemed daunting.

“I knew I wanted to do something with homelessness because I wanted to do that for my silver award,” Synan said.

She found the Central Massachusetts Housing Alliance through her own research and, after many discussions with her mentor and Girl Scout Troop, Synan recognized that there was a need for resource books.

“She told me that when people are placed in shelters, they’re placed where there are beds,” Synan said. “Often they’re in places they’re completely unfamiliar with. There are also people in Worcester shelters from across the state, and they have no idea what’s around them.”

And so Synan, who is entering her senior year of high school, created resource books with information on food pantries, food stamps, libraries, hospitals, doctors offices, grocery stores, and more. The nine books, each of which are about 30 to 35 pages long, live at the front desk of homeless shelters across the City of Worcester in case anyone needs help. In recognition of her service, Synan is one of more than a dozen Worcester County teens who received a Gold Award from The Girls Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts for making an impact and difference in their community.

“It means a lot to me, especially because I think my project was an impactful one,” Synan said. “It helps people in my community that I’ve never met but now they’re benefiting from my work. It feels good.”

The Gold Award is the Girl Scout equivalent of an Eagle Scout award for Boy Scouts. To be eligible, the girls need to be in ninth to twelfth grade and demonstrate extraordinary leadership in developing sustainable solutions to local, national and global problems. The award has been given out since 1916.

“It seems to me the time and dedication a girl puts forth to accomplish [this] is indicative of how she will approach her future. And they are out there doing it,” said Dana Carnegie, the communications manager of the Girls Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts.

Colleen Henderson interviewed elderly in her community at a senior center to document their lives and burn onto a CD to give to their families. She also partnered with the Bolton Historical Society, and a copy of each CD will be kept in the organization’s records.

Henderson said that she interviewed a veteran who became emotional while talking about his family. She was happy that she made the man comfortable enough to share his story.

“It was just really nice to capture that,” Henderson said. “I think that everyone should embrace the opportunity to share some documentation of their life story to have within the family.”

Erin Arsenault made a music instrument lending library for students in the Leicester school district who could not afford the cost of buying their own instruments. Arsenault, who plays baritone sax, asked people within the music departments at the high, middle, and elementary schools. She said she thinks she received more musical instrument donations in the end than monetary donations.

“I always just loved being able to share my love of music with the other kids. When I got to high school, it came to my attention that some of my peers in the younger grades wanted to play an instrument but couldn’t because of how much it cost,” Arsenault said. “It was very nice to see how much people cared about it.”

Students are now able to take home the instruments with them. Each instrument has a barcode on it that leads students to a google form that allows them to “rent” the instrument up until their high school graduation. Arsenault also checks in with the students to ensure that the instruments stay in good condition, as she is ready to help with repairs and any other needs, including providing students with sheet music. This work also helps school music programs grow.

“It’s really nice to see that different kids are now in band,” Arsenault said. “I’ve been able to gain so many leadership skills out of this. Just to watch this grow from an idea to what it’s become is very interesting and rewarding at the same time.”

For Evangeline Welch, her project was immensely personal, and it was one that she’s been focused on for a few years. Welch created a support group for teens who have had a parent die.

“I knew it was a need in my community because it was something that I could have used,” Welch said. “One of the reasons that this group was needed was because people don’t always know what to say or you don’t always feel heard.”

The peer support group started independently on Zoom from her school, which then opened to other local teens, not just those within Welch’s circle. The group talked about everything, as the voluntary space was created just to share experiences. Welch said that she took on more of a facilitator role so that the group, which met once a month, was more dynamic and could change depending on what participants needed.

“It’s such a special experience. Regardless of whether I received the Gold Award or not, I’m just happy I was able to do this project,” Welch said. “Even if it’s just a couple of people that I was able to help, they will feel less alone. That’s good enough for me — just making an impact on a couple of people’s lives.”

Triniti Petruzelli also worked to support people around her. She held an event called “You Are Not Alone” to help those struggling with mental health and provide resources, like hotlines and home options for care. With about 60 people at the Grafton Lions Club in August of 2020, vendors shared a variety of resources like an inpatient and outpatient nurse from a psychiatric hospital and body therapy outlets like hot rocks and acupuncture.

“I struggle with many different mental health issues… I did not have the resources and the people when I was feeling really alone,” Petruzelli said. “I thought that other people would be in that situation, and they needed someone to show them that they’re not alone. There are people who care about them.”

The Grafton Lions Club will be taking over Petruzelli’s project as she goes off to college. Petruzelli will also work with the organization to provide even more mental health resources, and she said that there is hope that a unit on mental health will be put into the curriculum in the Grafton schools.

“We need to break the stigma and have it be more talked about, like when you break your arm. It needs to be more normalized than it is,” Petruzelli said. “You can really change the way people see topics if you just talk about it and you persevere.”

Adhithri Raja focused on health with her project, in which she partnered with a hospital to provide more awareness around various topics. With a few friends, Raja did a virtual camp for 230 kids that covered topics like first response, mental health awareness, yoga, nutrition, exercise, basic anatomy and the pandemic.

“It was things that they don’t teach at elementary schools,” she said. “We wanted to give them exposure to it before they learned it in a specific health class. And some of the things they don’t teach in schools.”

The camp, which ran for two weeks, provided homework assignments to the kids so they could work on the skills they learned throughout the day. At the end, students submitted projects on various topics. Some made stories. Others presented board games.

Raja then went beyond the camp to create a Global Health Awareness Initiative within her high school. Raja plans to go to medical school herself.

“I think that I was very fortunate to have the opportunity and the resources through the Girl Scouts to do my Gold Award,” Raja said. “The whole project was because of my passion for health so it meant a lot to me.”

The full list of Worcester County Gold Award Girl Scouts: