Girl Scouts of Western New York is proud to announce Rachel Blank of Spencerport, as a 2018 Gold Award Girl Scout. Blank’s project, Project Take Baby Home, was created to help parents with newborns in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Golisano Children’s Hospital. She collaborated with the hospital to provide baskets of essential baby items, such as blankets and clothes. She gathered donations at Trinity Lutheran Church in Spencerport and at the Ogden Farmers’ Library. In total, she donated 45 baskets of baby items to the NICU.
Blank stated, “I chose my project because the first few days of my life were spent in the NICU at Strong Hospital because my twin brother and I were born six weeks early; the NICU saved my life and I wanted to give back. The purpose of my project was to ease the burden and expense of childcare that families with babies in the NICU have to face.”
She explained, “The project had a very positive impact on me. It allowed me to broaden my horizons and to come to understand more about problems in our community, like undernourishment and drug abuse, which can cause a mother to give birth early or to give birth to a sick baby.”
Blank added, “Girl Scouts has taught me responsibility and helped me to make friends.”
Blank received her Gold Award at the Gold Award Ceremony on June 2. The Gold Award is the highest award in Girl Scouts.
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