GSEM Bronze Award Project Catalog

Support for Shelter Dogs

Bronze Award Team: Troop 1296

Issue: There are many animals in shelters, and they often appear anxious or distressed, which can make them less likely to be adopted. Root Cause: Animals can spend long periods of time in shelters before being adopted. Target Audience: The Juniors helped animals at Stray Rescue and reached potential adopters.

Project Details: After researching about animals’ long stays in shelters, these young leaders wanted to do their part to increase adoptions. The Girl Scouts sewed reusable leash covers with various phrases, such as, “adopt me,” “dog reactive,” and “ask to pet,” for Stray Rescue of St. Louis to use while taking dogs out for daily walks. The Juniors also made an activity book for the shelter to pass out to visiting kids to educate them on ways they can help shelter animals, and how to keep additional pets out of shelters. Finally, they collected commonly needed shelter supplies and made dog toys to enrich the lives of shelter animals while they are there.

Kitty Kollection

Issue: When considering the types of donations animal shelters often request, the focus is usually on dogs—leaving cats and other animals with fewer supplies. Root Cause: Cats are often seen as more independent and less demanding, so people may assume they don’t need many supplies to meet their basic needs. Since cats are generally smaller and require less food and equipment, shelters tend to have higher expenses caring for dogs. As a result, donation requests are often focused more on the dog population. Target Audience: Humane Society of Missouri and the Animal Protection Association in St. Louis.

Bronze Award Team: Magnolia Z. of Troop 55075

Project Details: Passionate about the needs of cats in shelters, this young go-getter established donation bins around the South City PetSmart to earn her Girl Scout Bronze Award. Magnolia created an information display to go with the bins that shared awareness of needs shelter cats may have and encouraged customers to contribute. Magnolia also worked with her elementary school to collect wish list items for cats. Those collected items were then donated to the Humane Society of Missouri and Animal Protective Association of Missouri (APA).