Achieving the Highest Honor

Two Rockville Centre high school students recently earned the Girl Scout Gold Award — the equivalent of the Boy Scout Eagle rank — for their community service projects. Both Danielle Aliota and Caitlin Morahan of Troop 810 spent several months planning and executing projects that helped special education students at South Side High School and the Rockville Centre Girl Scout Association, respectively.

Danielle Aliota, who will be a senior at South Side in September, passed on her love and enjoyment of dance to CORE students at the high school. "It's so fulfilling to really reach out to the community and inspire others who like to express themselves through dance," she said.

Every week, she used her only free period to work with the developmentally challenged CORE students. Rather than performance, Danielle's focus was on creative movement, dance games, and coaching the students in coming up with their own choreography.

Aliota has performed as an apprentice of the Eglevsky Ballet Troupe at the Tilles Center in Westbury, as well as a with the American Dance Theater Workshop at Carnegie Hall.

Morahan's service project focused on World Thinking Day , an important event for girl scouts worldwide. It is a reflection on girl scout troops from around the world and on global friendship.

Morahan, building on her interest in working with younger scouts, wanted to bring this celebration to Rockville Centre. Many local troops host what is called International Day, but there had never been one in the village, her mother Susanne said.

So Morahan put together a program dubbed, "Where East Meets West," which featured exhibits and food from 15 different countries. Each scout was given a "passport," and as they visited each booth, their passport was stamped. Morahan also arranged for the participants to earn a World Thinking Day badge.

In addition, she arranged for the Lion Troupe Performers of the Chinese Center on Long Island to perform a dance in honor of the Chinese New Year.