Averill Park High School student Emily Walsh recently became a Gold Award Girl Scout after completing community-related service projects.
Emily has been involved in the Girl Scouts program for roughly 12 years, first starting in Kindergarten.
Inspired by her belief that self-care and personal fitness should be a priority for people of all ages, Emily set out to promote lifelong fitness in the Averill Park community. She created a series of videos which shared recommendations for healthy and safe ways that individuals in youth, adult and senior age groups can stay active. Emily also improved accessibility at local hiking trails by mulching the paths and putting up informational and directional signs.
“I wanted my project on lifelong personal fitness to allow people of all ages and abilities to have a local opportunity to stay fit,” Emily said. “In order to find a way to accomplish this, I thought of what our community has to offer and discovered that, in our immediate Averill Park area, hiking and walking is a very popular form of activity. As such, I found that the trails at Butler Park were in an easily accessible location for many people and found that they were also in desperate need of a little help. However, after I had finished re-mulching and putting up signs along this 1.1-mile path (with the help of some lovely volunteers), I realized that by doing this I was only reaching a relatively small group of people. That was when I knew I wanted to create a series of videos which anyone could access when they wanted to focus on their fitness.”
“We are so proud of her accomplishment, especially given the unique challenges of this year, and we wish her the best in her future endeavors,” said Miriam Fiering, Girl Experience Manager with Girl Scouts of Northeastern New York.
