Girl Scout Earns Silver Award for Project Benefitting Peninsula Pet Pantry

Girl Scout Senior Katie from Williamsburg has earned the Girl Scout Silver Award, the second highest achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting. For her project, Katie focused on bringing awareness to and collecting supplies for the Peninsula Pet Pantry, an organization that provides temporary pet food and supply assistance to pet owners on the Peninsula facing financial hardship.

Katie delivers pet supplies that she collected to Geralyn Nelson,
volunteer coordinator and co-founder of Peninsula Pet Pantry.

For her project, Katie hosted a pet food drive by placing collections for pet supplies at her school and at local businesses. She helped to promote her efforts by writing letters to the editor to local newspapers, writing public service announcements for radio and making announcements at her school. Through her project, Katie aimed to not only collect donations for the Peninsula Pet Pantry, but also to educate her community about mission and efforts of the organization.

“In this day and time, humans aren't the only ones who need food assistance in the community,” Katie said. “My project focused on bringing attention to the plight of pet owners who may have to decide whether to feed themselves or their pets.”

The Peninsula Pet Pantry was founded to help decrease the number of pet surrenders to local animal shelters due to people not being able to afford pet-related expenses. They help pet owners with food, flea and tick prevention, referral services and more.

The Girl Scout Silver Award requires girls to identify an issue in their community and carry out a Take Action project to address the matter through leadership work. The Girl Scout Silver Award is the second- highest a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.