Girl Scout Earns Gold Award for Pollinator House Project
By SARAH ROBERTSONEONTA
Skylar Gargash, a 2025 Oneonta High School graduate and fourth-generation beekeeper from Girl Scout Troop 30043, has earned the prestigious Girl Scout Gold Award for her “Take Action” project, “Pollinator Power,” which promotes awareness of pollinator habitat loss and the creation of pollinator houses for community use.
As a beekeeper, Gargash said she has been concerned about the declining pollinator populations in recent years. Through various tabling events and seminars, she has spread awareness about the issues of declining pollinator populations and provided handouts on how to build and maintain pollinator houses— structures which accommodate solitary-nesting native bees by providing cavities in natural materials for them to live in.
