Ariel Salerno, daughter of David and Angie Salerno, of Suffolk, has earned the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.

Salerno was a Girl Scout for 13 years and is currently a freshman at Randolph-Macon College.

For her project, Salerno created educational games for students at Kilby Shores Elementary School to use during recess. Salerno was able to create games utilizing Standards of Learning materials with the hope of getting students excited about SOLs. She also was able to help educators fill students’ recess time with structured, educational games that would not only benefit students’ learning but also give teachers more time to teach necessary materials.

“I saw a need in my community,” Salerno said. “Children are our future, so it is best to teach them at a young age that learning can be fun.”

Salerno gave instructions to local teachers for all of the games and activities she created. She also shared the process she went through to create the games, so teachers can add more materials in rotation to keep up with the Standards of Learning.

The Gold Award requires girls to identify an issue in their community and carry out a Take Action project to address the matter through leadership work. Nationwide, less than six percent of eligible Girl Scouts earn the Gold Award, which adds Salerno to an elite group of female leaders across the country with the honor.

Girl Scouts of the Colonial Coast, a United Way agency, serves nearly 14,000 girls in kindergarten through 12th grade and more than 6,000 adult volunteers in southeastern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina. For more information, visit www.gsccc.org or call 1-800-77SCOUT.