Local Girl Scout Creates Mental Health Kits for Students
Warwick, R.I. (April 22, 2025)—Girl Scouts of Southeastern New England is excited and proud to announce that Sammy Hughey from Wrentham, MA has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouting.
Sammy’s Gold Award project is titled Calming Corner Kits for Elementary School Students. Sammy created mental health kits for all the K-3 classrooms at Delaney Elementary School in Wrentham, MA.
The kits include tools for students to manage their stress and anxiety, including books, coloring pages, fidget and calming toys, posters with breathing exercises, strategies to deal with stress, and positive words of encouragement.
Not only does this help the students feel better when they are feeling anxious or stressed, but the tools in the kit also help them learn appropriate and effective ways to deal with their anxiety. In addition, by having these tools in place, as they get older it will become even more helpful as they will already know what tools to use when dealing with stress.
Sammy also created documents for teachers with resources for children’s mental health. To complete this project, she met and worked with the Delaney Elementary School principal and school counselors over the course of the school year to present her ideas, provide updates on her progress, and take feedback to strengthen her project in ways that would support the staff and students at the Delaney Elementary School.
She also hosted fundraisers and reached out to local stores as well as friends and family for support in purchasing items for the Calming Corner Kits. She presented her project to all the teachers at their first staff meeting back at the beginning of the school year. Since then, she has received positive feedback from the teachers at Delaney and had a great experience doing this project.
“I knew that I wanted to do something that would create a positive impact for children, because I want to work with children when I’m older. I am going to college for psychology, and eventually I would like to be a child therapist. This project gave me a lot of experience and allowed me to research a lot about children’s mental health.
Working with the Delaney School counselors also gave me more insight into working with children and all the things to consider when helping them with stress and anxiety. I will be able to take this experience with me to college and once I start working. Children’s mental health is something I am very passionate about, and being able to complete this project in the field of children’s mental health was very educational and inspiring.” said Sammy Hughey, Gold Award Girl Scout.
About the Girl Scout Gold Award
Since 1916, Girl Scouts have been making meaningful, sustainable change in their communities and around the world while earning this award. The Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouting, acknowledges the power behind each Gold Award Girl Scout’s dedication to not only empowering and bettering herself, but also to making the world a better place for others. These young women are courageous leaders and visionary change makers. They are our future, and it looks bright!
Sammy will join the millions of Girl Scout alum around the world who have successfully created, developed, and executed “Take Action” projects that have positively impacted their communities and the world, earning Girl Scouts’ highest award.
Gold Award Girl Scouts become innovative problem-solvers, strong and empathetic leaders, confident public speakers, and focused project managers. They learn resourcefulness, tenacity, and decision-making skills, giving them an edge personally and professionally. As they take action to transform their communities, Gold Award Girl Scouts gain tangible skills and prove they’re the leaders our world needs. The 2025 Gold Award Girl Scout class identified issues in their communities, took action, and found or created solutions to earn their Gold Awards, addressing real-life problems such as environmental sustainability, racial justice, mental and physical well-being, and gender inequality in STEM.
According to recent research, Gold Award Girl Scouts are more likely to fill leadership roles at work and in their personal lives and are more civically engaged than their non-Girl Scout peers. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Gold Award Girl Scouts agree that earning their Gold Award gave them skills that help them succeed professionally. Seventy-two percent (72%) said earning their Gold Award helped them get a scholarship. Changing the world doesn’t end when a Girl Scout earns her Gold Award. Ninety-nine percent (99%) of Gold Award Girl Scout alums take on leadership roles in their everyday lives.
Earning the Gold Award is just one of the amazing things girls and gender-expansive youth can do as part of Girl Scouts. To join Girl Scouts or learn more about volunteering, please visit www.gssne.org/join.
We Are Girl Scouts
Girl Scouts bring their dreams to life and work together to build a better world. Through programs across Southeastern New England, girls and gender-expansive youth of all backgrounds and abilities can be unapologetically themselves in a safe space as they discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges. Backed strong friendships and trusted adult volunteers, mentors, and millions of alums, Girl Scouts lead the way as they find their voices and make changes that affect the issues most important to them. Girl Scouts feel comfortable trying new things without the pressure to be perfect, speaking their minds, and processing their emotions in healthy ways. They discover how being different makes them special, strengthens their sense of belonging, and, ultimately, makes them proud to be themselves. That’s the magic of Girl Scouting. To join us, volunteer, reconnect, or donate, visit gssne.org, follow @gssne on Instagram, follow @GirlScoutsofSNE on Twitter, and like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/GSSNE.