Girl Scouts of Southeastern Michigan honors Duyen Avallone with the most prestigious award in the world for girls: the Girl Scout Gold Award. Duyen, of Milford, is among 13 young women who have taken the initiative to bettering their communities through sustainable community change projects. The time and commitment they’ve dedicated towards these projects prove they’re true leaders and exceptional examples for all girls to look up to.

The Gold Award is Girl Scout’s highest honor and is presented to Girl Scouts who address a community issue or problem they are passionate about. They’re required to spend a minimum of 80 hours investigating the problem, creating a plan, and implementing it.

For her Gold Award project, Duyen took action to educate her community about plastic pollution and promote sustainability. She began by organizing a recurring class that taught students how to make sleeping mats from plastic bags. The class had several facets to it. The first was to educate students about the effects of plastic pollution and why it’s so important to reduce it. The second was to give students an actual method to reduce plastic pollution through newly taught crochet skills. Teachers included a local environmental group, school staff, and the environmental conservation organization, We are Plarners.

Digging deeper, the class explored turning single-use plastic bags into into sleeping mats. Mats created from the class were then donated to the Urban Crossroads Center, during a time where help is needed now more than ever. So not only did Duyen help keeps plastic out of landfills, but she also helped the homeless stay warm. In the end more than 50 mats were made and donated.

“I discovered new leadership skills, patience, flexibility, and learned so much about myself.”