Woodbridge, Va. -- Forest Park High School senior Elizabeth "Lizzie" Saccoccia is the winner of two awards: the Girl Scouts Gold Award and the 2009 Ducks Unlimited Conservationist of the Year award.
The Prince William Soil and Water Conservation District nominated Saccoccia for the 2009 Ducks Unlim-ited Conservationist of the Year award after working with her to develop a project for the Gold Award.
The Gold Award is the highest honor that Girls Scouts ages 14 to 18 can earn. Gold Award projects must demonstrate more than simple community service. The project must fulfill a need within the local or global community, create change and be something that inspires continuation of the project.
Through the work, the girls must demonstrate organizational skills, leadership and the ability to net-work.
Working in coordination with Kelly Jimenez, outreach and education specialist with the Nokesville-based soil and water district, Saccoccia organized a project that included learning how to use an EnviroScape watershed model and a Healthy Water Hopscotch game to educate others about watersheds and sources of pollution that affect waterways.
Saccoccia received training to learn to use the education tools and then taught an additional 10 volunteers who presented the information to more than 75 residents at the Lake Montclair Oktoberfest last year.
Saccoccia developed T-shirts for all her volunteers to wear with the message, "Keep Our Water Clean" on the front and "Only Rain Down the Drain" on the back.
Her next step was to label storm drains in her community.
Marking more than 125 storm drains with a "Drains to Bay" stencil required Saccoccia to contact and receive permission from the proper authorities with Prince William County, the Virginia De-partment of Transportation, homeowners associations and landowners.
She successfully received these permissions, researched appropriate paint types, and recruited and trained volunteers.
Conducting water quality testing at Lake Montclair was the final component of Saccoccia's pro-ject.
But it wasn't just the Gold Award project that won Saccoccia the Ducks Unlimited Conservationist of the Year award.
Among other efforts, Saccoccia established the ecology club at Forest Park, and she participated in the school's "Get Green, Get Heard" bike ride to school program to raise environmental awareness.
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