Melick shines a light on local historical site

RAVENA-COEYMANS-SELKIRK —It’s the highest honor a Girl Scout can achieve — the vaunted Gold Award, earned by fewer than 6 percent of scouts each year.

Brianna Melick, a New Baltimore resident and RCS High School graduate in the class of 2017, was awarded the honor this summer after completing a major community service project that served to shine a light on an oft-overlooked historical site located right in the middle of the Hudson River.

In addition to meeting other criteria — including first having earned the Bronze and Silver awards — prospective Gold Award awardees have to complete an extensive community service project.

“I made a learning packet for the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse so people who can’t make it out to the lighthouse, because it is expensive to take the boat to get there or because it is hard for them to get out to the lighthouse,” Melick said. “There are things in there for every age, kids to adults, so they can read about the old traditions of lighthouse keepers, what they had to deal with every day, and about their families.”

Each learning packet includes activities like puzzles, coloring pages and craft ideas, along with a brief history of the structure.

The Hudson-Athens Lighthouse was built in 1874 in the middle of the river, between Hudson and Athens, to safely guide ships around the Middle Ground Flats, according to the Hudson-Athens Lighthouse Preservation Society website.

The lighthouse is open for tours the second Saturday of each month from July through October. Visitors are ferried to the lighthouse by boat, with departures several times on tour days from both Athens’ Riverfront Park and Henry Hudson Riverfront Park in Hudson.

Melick’s learning packet provides information on the history of the lighthouse, including the story of one person who was actually born there.

The goal, Melick said, is to bring the history of the site to life and generate interest.

“It’s to help the lighthouse gain more volunteers because there are not a lot of volunteers and this will enlighten people who may not be aware that it is there and that it is open for tours,” Melick said. “It is there for people to go and visit.”

For Melick’s family, the lighthouse has become a family affair — and that’s where the idea for her Gold Award project came from.

“My grandmother worked there as the treasurer,” she said. “When she passed away in 2015, my mom and I started volunteering and they brought it up to me that they would like for a packet to be made for people to learn more about it. We met with them and got it approved by the Girl Scouts and made it a project.”

Along the way to the Gold Award, Melick said scouts learn lessons in individuality, strength, leadership, and how to work both with people and on your own. Community service is a big focus of Girl Scouts.

Melick’s choice for her community service project was in keeping with what she is studying in college. A student at University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Virginia, she is majoring in historic preservation, with a focus on archaeology.

Melick has been involved in Girl Scouts since she was very young, and the organization has helped her build life skills.

For the Gold Award alone, recipients devote “at least 80 hours to their projects, and truly accomplish the Girl Scout mission of developing courage, confidence and character to make our world a better place,” according to a statement from the organization.

“It helped me to not be in my shell, to make friends — I am still friends with the girls I did this with since I was young,” she said. “It helps build leadership skills and working in groups. And when you are older you become a mentor to the younger girls, so it helps you learn how to work with other people.”

The lighthouse learning packets Melick created can be checked out from the RCS Community Library in Ravena; D.R. Evarts Library in Athens; Heermance Memorial Library in Coxsackie; and the public libraries in both Catskill and Hudson.