Due to the coronavirus, senior Gianna Rowe is thinking of new ways to finish her Gold Award while still following the social distancing precautions. 

Rowe has been in Girl Scouts since she was in kindergarten, and was just hours away from completing the highest award there is — the Gold Award.

“I’m doing a project about rideshare safety which is pretty much about Uber and Lyft and how to use those services safely,” Rowe said. “My project is mainly about informing the public of that, including River Vale and Hillsdale.”

As part of her Gold Award, Rowe has made a video PSA that talks about the seven safety tips to follow when taking an uber.

“We go to a lot of events to talk about my project, and I will post the PSA to the town website, Facebook, and wherever else I can post it,” Rowe said.

Rowe said a Gold Award is 80 hours of work, but she only has nine to go. She is still searching for ways to complete her hours.

“I was going to go to [Pascack Valley’s] spring musical to get more hours because events like that are mainly how I inform people, but that was sadly canceled,” Rowe said. “There haven’t been any events in a while, but I am going to go to the farmers market to finish it up, and it should hopefully be done soon.”

Rowe completed her Silver Award with another Girl Scout, which was making gift bags for teens with cancer in the hospital.

“Earning a Gold Award definitely takes a lot of dedication, and going into it, I had no idea how much work it was going to be compared to the Silver Award,” Rowe said.

Rowe has received help along the way from a few members in the community, including River Vale mayor Glen Jasionowski, who was her advisor, and many police officers.

“A lot of people actually liked my project. People would come up to me and tell me what a great thing I was doing, while others would just take a look,” Rowe said.

Rowe said she learned not to procrastinate and to put a lot of effort into whatever you do.

“I think being a Girl Scout has made me a better person and more hardworking with these projects and overall everything that we do,” Rowe said. “We do a lot of food drives, fundraisers,  and we help out with the town and a lot of different things, so it has definitely made me more involved with my community too.”