
A township Girl Scout has completed work for her Gold Award, the highest level of Girl Scouting, with a project benefiting the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at St. Peter’s University Hospital in New Brunswick.
Heather Attanasio, who will be a senior at Franklin High School, focused her project on the needs of parents of children in the NICU. Her project provided care packages, hand-made hats, voice recorders, books (in English and Spanish), journals and pens, and for the most unexpected and heart-wrenching circumstances, hand-made burial gowns.
An important aspect of the Gold Award is to have the project be sustainable. This was accomplished with the donation of voice recorders for the parents to use when they are not able to be at the NICU due to other circumstances. The parents can record themselves reading books or singing and the nurses can play it for the babies when the parents are not able to be there.
Her overall project provided a total of 57 pens, 26 journals, 25 care packages (which included: 2 water bottles, 2 toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss, 2 tissue packs, a handmade tissue pack cover, men’s deodorant, women’s deodorant, lotion, 6 face wipes, comb, brush, and a note card with message), 161 hats, 56 gowns, 35 books, and 25 voice recorders.

Attanasio has been in Girl Scout Troop 66339 since she was in the 1st Grade. Throughout her Girl Scout career, she has volunteered for many organizations and has completed her Bronze, Silver, and now her Gold Award.
Attanasio thanked all who helped her along the way: Saint Peter’s NICU Nurses (Ann Marie Meredith, Debbie Ford-Thomson, Daniela Moscarella), Michelle Fielder, Barbara Hutchins, Troop 66339, Troop 60681, Troop 3460, Troop 498, Susan Seamon, Ellen Attanasio, Jennie Lindbloom, Bound Brook Presbyterian Church, BBPC Compassion-Knits, Linda Darby, Vidhu Goyal, Virginia Wentworth, Dr. Malinowski, Dr. Goldstein, Zumbathon participants and instructors, and many family members and friends.