Girl Scouts of Western New York is proud to announce Skye Dreher as a 2025 Gold Award Girl Scout.

Project: You Are Not Alone: Spreading Strength Through Service.

Worldwide suicide rates are exponentially increasing, and the risks of students in a middle school community taking their own lives have increased as well (Hernandez-Calle, Keyes, Khauli, and Martinez-Ales, 2020). My Gold Award project helped middle schoolers understand mental health as well as how to come up with solutions for improved mental health, rather than applying a permanent solution, known as suicide. The project greatly impacted my community through helping children understand their mental health and how to combat problems constructively and positively. According to the American Psychiatric Association, not discussing mental health adds to the stigma that surrounds it. Implementing this project helped reduce stigma around mental health and brought some positive solutions to address this wide-reaching issue. It enabled myself, along with others, to continue to aid young children understand how to work around the stigma and come up with better alternatives that will improve the overall mental health of our middle schoolers. I was taught that suicide is a permanent solution to a temporary problem, and that is how I look at it. The goal achieved was to help middle school students learn coping mechanisms and strategies to deal with our trials and tribulations. The root cause of this issue was cyberbullying, bullying, and social media which are all leading causes of decreasing mental health and increasing suicide rates among this student population (UT Southwestern Medical Center, 2018). The social impact this has on children, primarily because they do not know how to deal with it, cannot be underestimated. Where Everyone Belongs, or WEB, is a middle school transition program that we implemented in our middle school about 4 years ago. Research has shown that this program increases student achievement, enhances character development efforts, and creates an anti-bullying environment at schools. Eighth-grade students apply and are selected as WEB leaders based on merit, including grades and extracurricular activities. The WEB Leaders are recommended by teachers to sit through an interview process, and they complete pieces of training to learn how to help facilitate activities at the sixth-grade orientation. At the orientation, each WEB Leader works with a small group of sixth-graders. I addressed the root cause by explaining a presentation to the children on alternative solutions to their problems, and had fun, engaging activities to incorporate into the presentation. I also discussed volunteering because, according to research, volunteering helps increase positive mental health. As noted by Haighton, Nichol, Rodrigues, and Wilson (2023), ¨volunteering provides unique benefits to organizations, recipients, and potentially the volunteers themselves.¨ When you do things to help others or a community, you start to feel better about yourself; therefore, increasing positive mental health. I partnered with the WEB leaders to create a presentation to further the WEB program’s goal of helping sixth-grade students. There are different types of activities and a volunteering portion that will help the children understand the alternatives to suicide as well as what is available to assist with one’s mental health. I worked with the ¨Where Everyone Belongs¨ (WEB) program in Grand Island, I initiated meetings with the Superintendent to share concerns about suicide and mental health crisis rates. I helped Veronica Connor Middle School with WEB Fridays, where I planned and delivered meaningful activities focused on mental health. We made “YANA” (You Are Not Alone) bracelets and chalked sidewalks with positive messages. As an intern with Mrs. Stang, the Sidway school psychologist, I brainstormed and assisted in the development of programs promoting positive mental health at the primary schools, created programs for middle school orientations, and became a trusted resource among peers and younger students district-wide. As an advocate for mental health, I am grateful for the path traveled through scouts, as wellness advocacy is part of my identity, not just the pursuit of an award. I have always had a servant’s heart. Throughout Girl Scouts, I have put in over 150 hours of work and this has shaped my desire to help others. I’ve assembled care and hygiene packages, cleaned churches, and distributed winter clothing, food, and Bibles to the homeless. I’ve led many projects to help the Grand Island community, including serving dinners at Kevin Guest House, making crafts and spending quality time with the elderly at Elderwood Assisted Living, constructing care packages for the military, making crafts at Haven House, cleaning the highway, and collecting cans to raise funds for food drives. I have spent a plethora of hours helping my community thrive. I have learned that making human connections through serving the community can improve mental health. Serving on my own, through clubs and with groups I follow, I have grown as a person and have moved closer toward realizing my true potential in life. It all began in Brownies and will not end now that I have achieved my long-term goal of earning the Gold Award.

About the Girl Scout Gold Award

The Gold Award project is the culmination of all the work a girl puts into “going for the Gold.” A Girl Scout’s project should be something that a girl can be passionate about—in thought, deed, and action that encompasses organizational, leadership, and networking skills. The project should also fulfill a need within a girl’s community (whether local or global) and create change that has the potential to be on-going or sustainable. Approximately 80 hours of community service are involved in the project. Completion of the Gold Award also qualifies the Girl Scout for special scholarship opportunities and she can enlist in the military at a higher starting pay grade. The Girl Scout Gold Award, the most prestigious award in the world for girls, acknowledges the power behind each recipient’s dedication to not only empowering and bettering herself, but also to making the world a better place for others. These young women are courageous leaders and visionary change makers. The Gold Award requires a Girl Scout to identify an issue and investigate it to understand what can be done to address the problem. The girl then forms a team to act as a support system, including a project advisor close to the issue who is not a troop leader or family member, while she leads the project. The Girl Scout creates a plan to ensure they know what steps they must tackle while working on the project. The Girl Scout submits a proposal for her project to her local Girl Scout council. After acceptance, the girl begins to work through the steps of their plan utilizing the assistance of her support team where necessary. Lastly, the project is used to educate and inspire others about the cause they are addressing. For more information on the Gold Award,  click here.