Townsend Student Earns Girl Scout Gold Award
Author: MT43 News Staff Reporter
MT43 News Staff Reporter
McKinley Ryan still shudders when she sees a dead animal lying beside the highway. She is not alone. Traveling along Montana highways, everyone sees hundreds of animal strikes. Because of her interest in animals, she chose the topic of animal strikes and how to end them for her entry to win a Girl Scouts USA Gold Award. She has received a letter of recognition and will receive her actual award in April of 2026, in Hawaii.
Her topic, “WeXRoads Too,” began during freshman year in 2023. The project aims to address the lack of education and resources about live animal strikes for young drivers. Based on a personal experience with her parents, whose car hit a deer, she has formulated the project to raise awareness, provide education and advocate for solutions to minimize the risks and impacts of hitting animals on the road.
During the 80-hour project, McKinley built a website for young people to visit. She also researched the problem with Fish, Wildlife and Parks, where she learned there are 3,200 animal strikes each year in Montana. She also talked with emergency responders on the emotional toll it takes on drivers who hit animals. She formulated a tip sheet on how, as a driver, to be more aware of animals along the road, and what to do if the driver hits an animal.
The final part of her project included building a toolkit to advocate for safe animal crossing zones and deterrent fencing. She fashioned the toolkit from a law passed by the 2023 Montana Legislature to build safe crossing for Montana’s wildlife, HB855. This satisfied the process, which encourages the Girl Scout to think beyond the community to the larger national and global community.
McKinley, age 16, has been in Girl Scouts for 10 years and currently serves as a Girl Scout Ambassador through Girl Scouts of Hawaii Council, where she and her family lived before moving to Townsend in 2019. She began homeschooling in seventh grade, where she now studies guitar, foreign languages and agriculture. She aims to major in veterinary pharmacology at University of Montana when she finishes her high school studies.
The Gold Award in Girl Scouts is the highest of three awards a person can earn. To qualify to try for the gold award, each Girl Scout must win both the bronze and silver awards first. The bronze award is for 4th & 5th graders; the silver award goes to middle schoolers. High School students may apply for the gold award. McKinley has earned all three awards.
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Image 1 Caption: Girl Scout Gold Award Winner McKinley Ryan displays the badges she has earned in the last ten years in the club.
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