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

Project: Education about foster care and support for the kids in it

Children in the foster system are often forced to carry all their belongings in trash bags. For my project, I wanted to work with an organization called Comfort Cases. The group collects backpacks and fills them with a myriad of basic toiletries, a blanket, a stuffed animal, and a book. Those bags are then sent to social services workers all over the country so they can provide kids entering the foster care system with something positive, something that belongs just to them. For my Gold Award, I held various fundraisers and supply drives to collect items for donation to this organization. The culmination of all that collecting occurred when my parents and I drove a van full of donations down to Maryland for drop off at Comfort Cases headquarters. While there, we volunteered for hours moving and sorting boxes that were filled with bags, ready to send to social services. To make my project more sustainable, I crafted an educational pamphlet about the foster care system and the children within it. This pamphlet is available to read or take from my school social worker’s office.

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.