WASHINGTON — Girl Scout member Kayleigh Young recently received a Gold Award from the Girl Scouts of Maine (GSME) for organizing the first Annual Teen Mental Health Convention to provide support and resources to teens in Knox and Lincoln County high schools. The Gold Award is the highest and most prestigious award in Girl Scouts. Girls who pursue their Gold Award aspire to transform an idea and vision for change into an actionable plan with measurable, sustainable, and far-reaching results.

Young’s Gold Award project focused on Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) in teenagers and how it is often overlooked. She organized the first Annual Teen Mental Health Convention, and in addition, Kayleigh created a workshop on SAD that incorporated Hygge techniques, which is the Danish concept of coziness and comfort. Kayleigh had participants from all 5 local high schools and 8 local organizations.  

Throughout the process Kayleigh learned valuable leadership and project management skills and discovered how to run meetings, coordinate tasks, and engage with both local organizations and teens.

“It was also amazing to see the presenters interacting and some of them meeting each other for the first time at the convention, it wasn’t just my participants that were making connections and building community. It is awe-inspiring to know that I created this (with lots of help),” said Young.

The Teen Mental Health Convention is now an annual event, with plans to be hosted by Healthy Lincoln County in the future. Her most successful takeaway is knowing she made a positive impact on the participants’ mental health and has created an initiative that will continue to help teens for years to come.  

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