Yorktown Student Receives Gold Award for Prescription Drug Awareness

Yorktown High School senior Samantha Greene has earned her Girl Scout Gold Award – the highest award in Girl Scouts – for her "Prescription Drug Awareness and Collection" project. 

The 17-year-old student has been a girl scout for 12 years and had previously earned Bronze and Silver Awards. Her leadership, Gold Award project consisted of more than 90 hours of work during an 18-month period. 

Greene's "Prescription Drug Awareness and Collection" project showed the dangers of prescription drugs getting into the hands of teens and young adults. It talked about storing them safely in your home, and spread word about the new Prescription Drug Drop-off Box located in the Yorktown Police Department lobby.

The student said she chose her project after hearing about a number of prescription drug related overdoses and deaths in the community. Greene said she realized the topic wasn't being addressed enough in high school health classes.

Here are highlights of Greene's work:

• To spread the word, Greene attended community events and back to school nights to distribute flyers and speak about safe storage of prescription drugs and proper disposal at the collection box. 

• She helped create and hang large signs throughout town to tell about the collection box. 

• She also went to local doctor and dentist offices to leave brochures for patients, and partnered with local pharmacies to post signs about the drop-off box. 

• Two local CVS pharmacies distributed her flyers to all customers picking up prescriptions. 

• Greene created a Public Service Announcement about the drop-off box that will be posted on the Alliance for Kids website. 

• She also contributed relevant information on the topic to local film maker, David Levin, who is creating a professional video that will be shown in local high school health classes which will reveal the dangers of prescription drug abuse and present interviews with family members who have lost teens and young adults to drugs.

• Greene has worked closely with the Alliance for Safe Kids in Yorktown who installed the drug drop off box at the Police Department.

• The production of the video and brochure printing and town signage were made possible through a generous donation from the West Med Medical Group.