Abington Heights 2026 graduate awarded Girl Scouts’ highest honor

An Abington Heights graduate helped beautify Hillside Park this summer while earning Girl Scouts highest award. Grace Bennett, an Ambassador Girl Scout with the Girl Scouts in the Heart of PA (GSHPA) Council, Troop No. 50797, earned her Gold Award by creating “Grace’s Garden Grandeur,” a special place in the park that offers seating, honors one of Bennett’s classmates and features a pollinator garden.

A graduate of Abington Heights Class of 2026, Bennett accounts for only a small percentage of Girl Scouts who go on to earn their Gold Award. According to Girl Scouts of the USA, only approximately 5.4% of girls earn this award. The award is earned by “developing and carrying out lasting solutions to issues in their neighborhoods and beyond,” according to GirlScouts.org.

“Grace is the only graduating senior from Abington Heights and only Girl Scout in Troop 50797 who was able to achieve this prestigious award,” said her mother, Denise Bennett.

To complete her project, Bennett collected 2,000 pounds of plastic for the Trex Corporation, which partners with Girl Scouts to recycle clean plastic film, grocery bags and other plastic waste that municipal recycling centers typically will not accept. Through the NexTrex program, Bennett received high-performance composite benches created from recycled materials to place in her garden.

One of those benches has been dedicated to Autumn Beemer, a member of the AHHS class of 2026 who tragically died in a car accident in January 2026. Bennett and Beemer were close friends and “bus buddies” in grade school.

“Our entire class was hit hard by the loss,” Bennett said. “Autumn was a bright soul. She would brighten any room she entered.”

That tribute to Beemer is just one example of how Bennett has tailored the setting to the memory of others. “Grace’s Garden Grandeur” is dedicated in loving memory of her grandmother, Elinore Anne Niehuus, who loved butterflies—an inspiration for the garden’s primary purpose to sustain key pollinator species.

“Pollinators are at risk,” Bennett said. “It’s so important to make sure we act on that now. I wanted to do my part to change that by making a pollinator garden the main focus.”

Bennett also included a Little Library with information about pollination and sustainable gardening.

In total, Bennett spent over 200 hours completing “Grace’s Garden Grandeur.”

Denise Bennett said that many people throughout the Abingtons and surrounding communities helped make her daughter’s vision a reality. Stone materials were donated by Scott and Doug LaCoe, owners of the Dalton Do-It Center, as well as by an anonymous donor. Johnson College students helped construct the garden’s pergola under the guidance of Todd Campbell, director of the college’s carpentry and cabinetmaking technology program. Newton Township-based woodworker Joe Barrese donated wood carvings of an eagle, snow owl and cardinal to decorate the space, and Seth Vinskofski of Black Rock Excavation donated his equipment and time to help excavate the area.

Jeremy Bishop, of Stone Craft Stonescaping in Old Forge, served as Bennett’s adviser for the project. Bishop also aided in the installation of memorial pavers.

This is not the first project Bennett has completed at Hillside Park. As part of her Silver Award, she created a memorial pathway to honor deceased loved ones. During that same time, her sister, Faith Bennett, now a senior at American University, completed her own Gold Award project, “Faith’s Labyrinth.”

Bennett’s Gold Award project also extended the pergola created as part of the previous projects. That pergola was dedicated in memory of her grandfathers, Herbert Niehuus and Walter Bennett.

According to their mother, these are the only Girl Scout projects ever completed at Hillside Park. The garden unites all three projects, but even more than that, Bennett said, the process taught her about the importance of community.

“So many people came together to make my vision come to life,” she said. “Forming those connections and learning how to communicate to make this corner of the park a better place truly meant the difference to me”

One of those people was Bill Blakiewicz, the grounds and maintenance manager at Hillside Park, who helped hardscape and mulch the garden.

“It truly was a community effort,” Denise Bennett said.

According to Girl Scout guidelines, Grace will remain an ambassador until the October after her senior year of high school, which is this year. She is already a lifetime member, however, and will stay active in her local council as a volunteer coordinator with GSHPA during Supporters of Camp Archbald summer camp, where she teaches about the care of horses.

As a graduate of Abington Heights, Bennett was awarded several scholarships, including the James F. Swift Scholarship, the Janet Rothenberg Scholarship and Waverly Women’s Club scholarship. She was also the female recipient of the Chase Yarns Memorial Scholarship.

Now a freshman at Juniata College, Bennett majors in psychology on a pre-law track. She is a member of the college’s women’s golf team and mock trial team.

One of her hobbies and passions, in addition to Girl Scouting, is distance running. She uses that pastime to help support causes by running in a variety of charity races throughout the year.

Bennett said she wants to continue to add to the project’s space. A QR code at the site leads potential donors to Bennett’s wish list of items she still wants to add. Those items include additional plants to attract more pollinators.

“This project will allow a reinformation from pollinator sustainability,” her wish list’s purpose statement reads. “But also provide a safe space where people can connect with nature outdoors.”

Visitors can also check the information in the memorial stone pathway to purchase their own stone and have it installed in the garden.

The project can be seen along Hillside Park’s boardwalk. To access it from the main parking lot along West Grove Street, follow the blacktop path along the south side of Eston Wilson Lake. “Grace’s Garden Grandeur” is on the left side of the boardwalk, just past the Leadership Lackawanna sign.

For more information about Hillside Park itself, visit hillsidepark.net.