Second local Girl Scout pursues top award
Aug. 22—Another Oneonta Girl Scout has accomplished the significant milestone toward completing her Gold Award project.
Emily Morell, an 18-year-old rising freshman at SUNY Oswego and a member of Girl Scout Troop 30296 in the town of Oneonta, built an expansion of the existing pavilion at the town pool at Greater Plains Elementary School.
The Gold Award is the highest achievement within the Girl Scouts organization, comparable with the Eagle Scout award.
At the pool, the pavilion was extended by 8 feet on each side and two new rows of benches were installed within the pavilion.
Morell's team of advisers and volunteers also added a poolside bench designated for individuals with disabilities and undertook a revitalization effort by scraping and re-painting the existing bathhouse and pavilion.
"We are immensely proud of the work Emily [Morell] and her team have done," Oneonta Town Supervisor Randal Mowers said in a statement. "Her dedication to community improvement and inclusivity provides us with a shining example of good citizenship."
Morell said Tuesday, Aug. 22 — the day before she left for college — that she came up with the idea to expand the pool pavilion after attending a town meeting while brainstorming Gold Award ideas.
She worked with Paul Neske, the town code enforcement officer, to ensure the design would be up to code.
She and her team of adult advisers, including a family friend with construction experience, Jim Baker, and volunteers did the construction, installation and painting work themselves using donated lumber.
"As part of the Gold Award, you have to work and make everything yourself, and lead your team," she said.
A prerequisite is earning the Girl Scout Silver Award. For that project, she and others from her troop made life-size outdoor games for Bugbee Children's Center, including Jenga and checkers.
She also earned the Bronze Award by creating "bug buckets" for Oneonta World of Learning, which are kits for children to gather and study insects, with her troop.
Morell, a Girl Scout for 14 years, said she stayed in the organization so long because not only is her mother, Susan Morell, her troop leader but she "just really appreciated the friendships I made in Girl Scouts."
"It was just a really great thing to go to camps in the summer, and do things for the community, and just spend time on people," Emily Morell said.
Susan Morell said that the Oneonta Town Pool is popular and offers the benefits of swimming brings to people in the summer.
"It's worth maintaining that space for the community," she said. "It's popular because of the proximity of the summer school and has free swimming lessons at the beginning of the summer."
The Oneonta community has produced a bumper crop of Girl Scouts "going gold" this year.
Maria Griswold, a rising senior at Oneonta High School and member of Girl Scout Troop 30043, completed her Gold Award requirements this month by doing a series of projects on raising public awareness about the effects of increased global temperatures on butterfly habitats.
Susan Morell said that she has two other girls in her troop who are also close to completing their Gold Award projects.
