Kay Loy/Photo by Samantha D’Anna

Kaya Loy, a senior at Los Alamos High School, has been awarded the Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouting. The Gold Award recognizes high school Girl Scouts who address issues they are passionate about by planning and implementing a project that produces lasting change in their communities and beyond. To earn the award, Loy developed and carried out It’s Okay To Get Help, a project in conjunction with Los Alamos Public Schools to make mental health resources easily accessible to young people.

The Girl Scout Gold Award acknowledges the power behind the scout’s dedication to empowering and bettering herself, while also making the world a better place for others. Gold Award recipients must spend at least 80 hours on a “take action” project, that distinguishes itself from a community service project by having a far-reaching and sustainable impact to change something for the better, forever.

Loy decided to take action to make mental health resources easily accessible to students at Los Alamos Public Schools, because she lost someone very dear to her to suicide and wanted to help prevent that from happening to others. Her Girl Scout advisor for the project was Melissa Laeser, and she worked closely with Kristine Coblentz, Salvador Zapien, and the counselors from Los Alamos Public Schools. The page she created can be found at lahs.laschools.net/families/student-wellness

Loy has been a Girl Scout since kindergarten. She also earned the Girl Scout Bronze and Silver Awards with her projects A Junior Ranger’s Guide to the Birds at Bandelier (link) and Preservation of Sites for Future Generations: A Public Service Announcement (link), respectively.

Only 5.4% of eligible Girl Scouts successfully earn the Gold Award, placing Loy among a prestigious community of change-makers who have achieved this honor. Loy will be recognized along with other Girl Scouts at an awards ceremony in Albuquerque on Dec. 16.