BUCKLAND — The Girl Scout who arranged for 300 Mohawk Trail Regional School students and staff to learn hands-only CPR, the Heimlich Maneuver and how to use automated defibrillators recently earned the highest honor a Girl Scout can achieve.
It’s called the Gold Award, and Emma Guyette of Buckland ended her senior year at Mohawk with an awards ceremony in the Massachusetts State House and a celebration of Western and Central Massachusetts Girl Scouts in Holyoke.
Guyette was the only Girl Scout in Franklin County to win the award this year, according to Dana Carnegie, a spokeswoman for Girl Scouts of Central and Western Massachusetts.
“Nationally, less than 6 percent of the eligible registered Girl Scouts in Grades 9 through 12 achieve the … award,” said Carnegie. The Gold Award is the Girl Scouts’ equivalent to the highest honor given to Boy Scouts, which is the rank of Eagle Scout.
“A national award, with national standards, it represents girls’ time, leadership, creativity and effort contributed to making their community better,” said Carnegie.
Carnegie says that some universities and colleges offer scholarships unique to Girl Scout Gold Award recipients, and that Girl Scouts who enlist in the U.S. armed forces may receive advanced rank in recognition of their Gold Award achievement.
Guyette was one of 60 Girl Scout Gold award winners statewide who attended a ceremoney led by Gov. Charlie Baker and Lt. Gov. Karyn Polito on June 13 in the State House. Baker proclaimed it the official day of “100 Years of Changing the World” to celebrate the award’s centennial anniversary.
The two days of training sessions in hands-only Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), Heimlich maneuver and operation of an Automated External Defibrillator was led by Colrain paramedic Matthew Wolkenbriet, but Guyette began working on the project almost six months in advance.
“I put over 120 hours into the project,” said Guyette, who will be starting Smith College this year. I had to meet with the Girl Scout Council to get my project approved and then keep in contact with my mentor during the process. But I was pretty much on my own to do whatever I wanted in regard to my project,” she said.
Guyette’s father, Buckland Fire Chief Herbert Guyette, made her aware of how difficult it is for emergency responders to travel quickly through rural West County towns to answer emergency calls.
“Doing my project made me realize that I want to dedicate my life to public service of some kind, and I hope to change the world through my career,” she said. “I have always been confident about effecting changes, but this was the first time I was successful at it.”
Andrea Llamas of Conway, a Girl Scout leader for 18 years, said Guyette was “my last Girl Scout, and the only one of my Girl Scouts to get a Gold Award.”
“It’s not as well known as the Eagle,” she said of the award, “but it’s equally hard, if not harder, to get it.”