Girl Scouts of Western New York is proud to announce Hailey Wahl as a 2025 Gold Award Girl Scout.

Project: Helping Out Feral Cats

The name of my project is “Helping Out Feral Cats”. This sparks the question: What is a feral cat? A feral cat is defined as an unsocialized outdoor cat that has never had physical contact with humans. In this project, I created cat houses for feral cats, educated family members about feral cats, and socialized a litter of feral kittens that are now adopted out through the SPCA. I selected this issue for numerous reasons. To begin, a few years ago, a large adult cat came to my neighborhood. A few months later, we saw her with her seven kittens the next spring. As cute as they were, many problems arose. From my research, I found that around 50% of kittens are females, so assuming 4/7 kittens were females, this can lead to overpopulation. Lets say out of those four cats each has seven kittens, that 28 kittens alone! Overpopulation of kittens can lead to food shortages and diseases. With many harsh winter storms, it leads many feral cats without warm homes and shelters, because of this, I decided to take action and worked with an organization called “Feral Cat Focus”. There, I worked with a team to build cat shelters for the harsh winter months. I believe I can help with this issue by creating warm cat houses.

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.