Girl Scout Ambassador, Leanne Walker, Troop 60779, has always had a passion for animals. Her love for animals led her to the Zoo, where she successfully completed her Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouts. David Hamilton, the Zoo’s General Curator, suggested several ideas and Leanne picked a project that was close to her heart: building barn owl houses to help the decreasing population.
Leanne researched and designed a house for the barn owls in hopes of bringing back the population to Western, NY. So many old barns are being torn down and these birds don’t have the nesting places that they once used to have.
For her award, she had to put in 80 hours, as well as secure donations from area businesses to help with the cost of the materials and run the whole project from start to finish. Leanne, along with friends and family, built 10 owl houses that were installed at the Zoo, Monroe County’s Seneca Park and Wild Wings Inc.
Leanne learned so much about the barn owls that she wanted to share her knowledge with the docents at the Zoo, so she developed a power point to be used at upcoming docent training sessions to further enrich their knowledge of barn owls.
Thank you to Terry Kozakiewicz from Wild Wings Inc. for helping her to achieve this award as well as Home Depot-Gates, Ace Hardware-Chili and Martusciello’s Bakery for their generous donations.
Leanne will head to college in just a short time, majoring in biology, and hopes to one day become a veterinarian specializing in marine mammals and surgery. Congratulations Leanne, and thank you for supporting the Zoo!
