My name is Faith Macchione. I am a student at Pascack Valley High School and also a lifelong member of the Girl Scouts. Since my days of being a Daisy as a young girl, I have worked my way up through the organization. After finishing my Silver Award project, I wanted to continue building on the work I had done by doing a larger project that incorporates the community and enriches the environment. After hearing that my high school was implementing an on-site beekeeping program, it really sparked my interest and I knew it would be perfect to collaborate with a teacher who is also interested in this as well. I chose to focus my Gold Award project on improving community awareness of the importance of honey bees as critical pollinators, as well as raise awareness about the decline in bee population over the past several years. This topic is important to me personally, but also to people inside and outside of my community.