Centralia Girl Scout Devotes 50 Hours to Lewis County Animal Shelter, Library

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The Lewis County Animal Shelter has made headlines in The Chronicle this year for various challenges, including an overwhelming number of cats and kittens due to delays in neutering during the early months of the pandemic.

Natalia Hedgers, a freshman at Centralia High School and member of Centralia Girl Scout Troop 41050, saw the shelter was in need and wanted to help.

She, too, made the paper this summer with her troop’s “Flamingo Flocking” fundraiser, where they set up plastic flamingos in Centralian yards.

Natalia has a rescue dog of her own, a black lab named Delilah.

“She's just really special to me and I love her so much. And so I just wanted to educate people on how we can keep animals in our community safe and help them out just by doing little things like donating your time or supplies,” Natalia said.

She drafted a service project that would earn her the Girl Scout Silver Award. The badge is given to Scouts who identify a problem in their community and target the issue through both short- and long-term solutions.

Natalia started by contacting employees at the shelter to ask about their greatest needs. They reported the facility was strapped for cleaning supplies, so she created an Amazon.com wishlist of desired donations and shared it on Facebook, asking participants to help.

The total value of the items purchased, she estimated, ended up being between $300 and $350.



After delivering the supplies to the animal shelter, she had to find a way to make her project sustainable.

To do that, she created a brochure and display at the Centralia Timberland Library with books about pet care and animal education for kids.

In total, Natalia spent approximately 50 hours researching, creating and executing her project.

“After being a part of a project like this, you realize how much work it is. But in the best way possible. You feel really accomplished after completing it,” she said.

With several years left in her Girl Scout career, she will seek to earn her Gold Award next, which requires about 80 hours of work. She’s still brainstorming what that project will be, but she said her goal when tackling it is to procrastinate less than she did with the Silver Award. Her favorite subject in school is science, so her Gold Award may be related to that.

Being a troop member has been extremely rewarding to Natalia during these formative years of her life, she said.

“I think it definitely teaches you a lot of confidence, a lot of leadership, but also you and your troop build an almost sisterly relationship,” Natalia said. “I’ve grown as a person a lot.”