Assemblyman Englebright with Samantha Dircks and Kaitlin Gibney of Girl Scout Troop #2151 of Stony Brook Who Were Recently Honored for Receiving the Girl Scout Gold Award

May 1, 2006

Pictured above from left to right are David and Donna Dircks, Samantha Dircks, Assemblyman Englebright, Kaitlin Dibney, and Karen and Thomas Dibney.

Samantha Dircks and Kaitlin Gibney of Girl Scout Troop #2151 of Stony Brook were recently honored for receiving the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest recognition a girl can achieve in Scouting. Assemblyman Steve Englebright had the privilege of presenting a New York State Citation to each of these outstanding young woman at a ceremony held at the Holiday Inn Express in Stony Brook.

To achieve a Gold Award a girl scout must complete a community service project. For Samantha Dircks’ Gold Award project, she filmed and edited a documentary about hunger on Long Island, interviewing the people who run local food banks, soup kitchens and shelters. Samantha showed the film to Girl Scout Troops in her area and organized activities to get them involved. Her film was so successful that she was asked to speak at the state Supreme Court Building in Mineola to recognize Hunger Awareness Day.

The idea for Kaitlin Gibney’s Gold Award project came to her when she worked at a local bagel store and saw the waste of food thrown away at the end of the day. Every week Kaitlin picked up the leftover bagels from Strathmore Bagels in Stony Brook, sliced them herself, and delivered them to three different adolescent shelters on Long Island. Through Kaitlin’s initiative teens at the shelters were able to have a quick and wholesome breakfast each morning.

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