Girl Scouts honor California senior with award
Girl Scouts Western Pennsylvania has presented Lauren Michelle Turosik with the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest recognition for achievement in Girl Scouting. Turosik is a senior at California Area High School, where she is varsity cheerleading captain, National Honor Society secretary, WCAL school television anchor, member of the Regional Student Forum, student council, The Future is Mine, Leo Club, SADD, voted to the 2009 homecoming court, and has been past house manager and dance captain for the school musicals.
She has received awards for literature, photography, videography, and multimedia in both local and regional competitions; in February 2009 she received a perfect score/exemplary award for her Pennsylvania Junior Academy of Science Behavioral Modification Project.
Turosik was chosen as the Zonta Club Amelia Earhart representative for California Area High School, and has been awarded the Junior Community Service Challenge Award.
Turosik is in her 15th year of dance with the Terry Sheehan School of Dance, Brownsville, attending classes in ballet, tap, jazz, lyrical, hip hop, and pointe; is a member of the Senior Dance Company, participating in competitions and dance trips, most recently this summer, dancing at Disney World and on the Monarch of the Seas cruise ship.
She is a member of the First Presbyterian Church of California; she volunteers at church and the California Area Food Pantry. She completed her first aid, AED and lifeguard certifications and has worked the last three summers at the Nemacolin Country Club in Beallsville.
As a Girl Scout for 13 years, Turosik is a Girl Scout ambassador of Troop 54016 and is supported in her Gold Award effort by Pat Coyle, service coordinator, and Lori Roberts, membership manager for the Bentworth Area.
Her Gold Award Project began to address the safety and knowledge of health issues and emergencies for parent coaches and volunteer leaders of midget cheerleaders (first through eighth grade). Turosik then expanded her efforts to any group that is not school affiliated, or specifically trained in first aid issues.
Using widely accepted first aid publications by both the Red Cross and the Boy Scouts of America, she compiled a booklet that includes emergency instructions, first aid kit list, injury prevention, and situations that could come up at any activity involving children.
Her goal is to pass 100 “Strong and Safe” Binders to local cheer, sport, church and miscellaneous groups.
“If one child is spared an injury because an adult read ‘Strong and Safe’ or if one child is treated with first aid faster or correctly because they had ‘Strong and Safe’ handy during an incident, my project will be a success,” she said.
She is hopeful that the booklets will be passed from volunteer to volunteer as they move on and many children will be helped.
Turosik will graduate in 2010 and plans to pursue an education/career in communications.
Turosik is a daughter of Diane Jeffries Turosik and the late Donald F. Turosik Jr. She gave special thanks to Kristine Whitehead Doppelheuer, her cheer coach and project adviser, and Gloria Limetti, her Gold Award mentor.
Her brother, Frank, earned his Boy Scout Eagle Award in 2004, and her father was the Scoutmaster of California Area Troop 1404 and involved in Mon Valley District Scouting for 20 years until his death in 2007.