North Chili resident and Girl Scout Ambassador, Leanne Walker, Troop 60779, has always had a passion for animals. This love for animals led her to the Seneca Park Zoo, where she successfully completed her Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouts.
The Zoo Curator at Seneca Park Zoo, Mr. Hamilton, suggested several ideas; however, Leanne wanted to pick a project that was close to her heart, so she decided on building barn owl houses to help the decreasing population.
She found that many old barns are being torn down, leaving these birds without the nesting places that they once used to have. Her research led her to design a house for the barn owls in hopes to bring back the population to Western New York.
For her award, Leanne 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 the help of friends and family, built 10 owl houses that were installed at the Seneca Park Zoo, Monroe County 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. She developed a power point to be used at the docents training to further enrich their knowledge of barn owls.
The Walker family expresses special appreciation to the Zoo Curator, David Hamilton and Terry Kozakiewicz from Wild Wings Inc. for helping Leanne 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 in hopes to one day become a veterinarian specializing in marine mammals and surgery.
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