When New Hyde Park Memorial High School senior Marisa Pugliese conceived her Girls Scout Gold Award project, she drew on her own experience of growing up with food allergies.
Knowing the sense it gave her of being different from her peers, she said she wanted to give other students a sense that their medical problems are not unique by teaching them about food allergies.
“There are many obstacles a child will reach as they are growing up. They need to realize they are not alone and the best way to help is communicating with others and supporting them,” Pugliese said.
Pugliese worked on a presentation starting in June, submitting her idea for the food allergies presentation to the Nassau County Girl Scout Council.
She subsequently spent 100 hours to develop the presentation as a Juliette – an independent Girl Scout unaffiliated with a local troop – and invited students with food allergies from nursery and grammar schools, as well as junior high age students in New Hyde Park for presentations at Gloria Dei Church in January.
From the start, she said she considered herself well qualified to address the subject as someone who is allergic to rice, lactose intolerant and can’t digest sugar.
She said much of her preparation comprised research into food allergies with which she was unfamiliar.
“I felt I have a lot of knowledge to share on this topic. I grew up with many allergies during my childhood and continue to deal with them,” Pugliese said. “I felt there was very little support and awareness for children with food allergies and other restrictions throughout my education.”
She developed a 90-minutes presentation with visual displays, entitled “Lets Include Instead of Exclude” for the younger children. She revamped the presentation for the older students, preparing 43 presentations for 75 students in classes at New Hyde Park Memorial that included a question-and-answer game about food allergies.
Pugliese said she received a universally positive response from students – and parents – to her presentation. She then invited all of the New Hyde Park community to a food allergy jamboree on Jan. 23, publicizing the event with flyers. At the jamboree samples of gluten free, dairy-free, peanut-free and other allergen-free foods for children and parents were available for them to take home and sample.
There was also literature, on EpiPen injection training and a display of local businesses that support families with allergies, including Gourmet Bakery, McDonald’s, Hand Rolled Bagels, Frantoni’s Pizzeria and Iceland. She also staged a scavenger hunt game to help kids learn more about allergies. A raffle was held with prized providing helpful tips to give the children the feeling of inclusion during their everyday life.
She reviewed the concerns expressed by attendees and discussed the feedback with school principals. She subsequently distributed folders with helpful hints, including EpiPen material and samples of products that can be useful to their students.
“I am hoping all this information will help the community to be more aware and will sustain the topic,” she said. “I really enjoyed it and I really enjoyed seeing how the students got together.”
Pugliese doesn’t yet know where she’ll be attending college, but she said her experience with her Gold Award project – which will earn her the highest level of competence as a Girl Scout in a June ceremony – would help her with her career aspiration to become a teacher.
“I think I learned a lot of traits that could help me in my major in college,” she said.
