Ashley-Marie Neto Gold Award Project
Submitted by GSHNJ
We all know that when women support and empower each other, great things happen.
That’s why Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey (GSHNJ) Girl Scout Ashley-Marie Neto, a senior at Union High School, decided to focus her Girl Scout Gold Award Project on helping women in local shelters.
The Girl Scout Gold Award is the pinnacle of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience and the most prestigious award a Girl Scout can earn. It recognizes girls who demonstrate extraordinary effort in developing sustainable solutions for problems facing our world.
Through a website she created on her own, Ashley-Marie worked to educate and bring awareness of domestic violence to the community. You can find her website here https://femininehygienefordvsurvivors.weebly.com/about.html.
Ashley-Marie also recognized the need for feminine hygiene products in surrounding women’s shelters and decided to create and provide kits filled with reusable feminine products. The kits were completed with an instruction manual on how to make and care for reusable feminine sanitary pads.
The YWCA Union County Domestic Violence Shelter has been instrumental in promoting the project by providing access to Ashley-Marie’s website and by distributing materials to make the kits.
“As a young female, I am determined to help, support, and empower other females,” Ashley-Marie said. “My goal is to make people aware of some of the dynamics involved in domestic violence and to assist the women in shelters. I also hope that providing these women with kits will help them financially. They can use the money saved towards other necessities, like food.”
Ashley-Marie has been part of Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey Troop 20926 for 12 years.
“Being a Girl Scout provides me with the opportunity to help and educate people, learn new things, create healthy relationships, develop life skills, and make a difference in the world,” she said.
“It is so wonderful to see our Gold Award Girl Scout using her project as a way to support women within her community,” added GSHNJ CEO Natasha Hemmings. “GSHNJ is an organization based on women supporting women and Ashley-Marie’s project is a perfect example of that.”
About Girl Scout Heart of New Jersey
Girl Scouts Heart of New Jersey (GSHNJ) believes in the power of every girl. Our leadership program is designed to help a girl discover who she is, what she can do, and connects her with a powerful community of girls and mentors to make it happen. With unique opportunities, Girl Scouts explore, learn, succeed and take action to make a difference in their community. Providing nearly 12,000 New Jersey girls access to premier leadership programs and mentors throughout Essex, Hudson, Hunterdon, Somerset, Union, southern Warren, and parts of Middlesex counties, GSHNJ offers girls a chance to practice a lifetime of leadership. GSHNJ has two service centers located in North Branch and Westfield,andoperates three summer camps: Camp Hoover in Middleville, NJ, Camp DeWitt in Hillsborough, NJ, and The OVAL in Maplewood, NJ. To volunteer, reconnect, donate, or join, please visit gshnj.org.
Courtesy photo
