Girl Scouts of Western New York is proud to announce Marley Dundas as a 2024 Gold Award Girl Scout.

Project: Signs for Safety in the Village of Cattaraugus

The Village of Cattaraugus is a historical rail town located in western New York that developed most after the arrival of the Erie Railroad in 1851. As of the 2020 census, the village population was just shy of 1000 people. The Cattaraugus-Littke Valley Central School is the largest employer in the village. I have grown up in Otto, a small town outside the village of Cattaraugus. Many kids from surrounding towns like mine, go to school at Cattaraugus-Little Valley, so there are a number of people who use the village sidewalks and streets who do not reside in the village. Through the years of going to school in the village and having just recently gotten my driver’s license, I have noticed that there is a lack of pedestrian crossing signs and crosswalks in the village are either faded or non-existent. This raises concern for safety of pedestrians and school children who have to use these crossings on a daily basis. According to recent reports conducted by the Centers for Disease control and Prevention and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, thousands of pedestrians are killed on our nation’s roads annually. One in six people who died in crashes in 2020 were pedestrians. In 2020, an estimated 104,000 emergency room visits of pedestrians treated for non-fatal injuries. One in five children (20.4%) under the age of 15 killed in crashes were pedestrians in 2020.Therefore, having an issue with crosswalks and lack of signage in the village of Cattaraugus can contribute to these eye-opening statistics. My project aimed to resolve this issue in the village, so that I could make a difference and hopefully reduce these statistics. In my eyes, if everyone were to take a small step like this in the area that they live, we could reduce the number of deaths and injuries on an annual basis.

About the Girl Scout Gold Award

The Gold Award project is the culmination of all the work a girl puts into “going for the Gold.” A Girl Scout’s project should be something that a girl can be passionate about—in thought, deed, and action that encompasses organizational, leadership, and networking skills. The project should also fulfill a need within a girl’s community (whether local or global) and create change that has the potential to be on-going or sustainable. Approximately 80 hours of community service are involved in the project. Completion of the Gold Award also qualifies the Girl Scout for special scholarship opportunities and she can enlist in the military at a higher starting pay grade. The Girl Scout Gold Award, the most prestigious award in the world for girls, acknowledges the power behind each recipient’s dedication to not only empowering and bettering herself, but also to making the world a better place for others. These young women are courageous leaders and visionary change makers. The Gold Award requires a Girl Scout to identify an issue and investigate it to understand what can be done to address the problem. The girl then forms a team to act as a support system, including a project advisor close to the issue who is not a troop leader or family member, while she leads the project. The Girl Scout creates a plan to ensure they know what steps they must tackle while working on the project. The Girl Scout submits a proposal for her project to her local Girl Scout council. After acceptance, the girl begins to work through the steps of their plan utilizing the assistance of her support team where necessary. Lastly, the project is used to educate and inspire others about the cause they are addressing. For more information on the Gold Award,  click here.