Submitted Photo

On the evening of Nov. 8, three Fredonia Girl Scouts from Troop 20033, Leah Bennett, Giacinte Laurito, and Kendra Seidel, were awarded their Bronze Award, the highest award earned by a Junior Girl Scout, by their leader, Casey Seidel, at a short ceremony held during the Girl Scouts of Western New York Chadwick Bay Service Unit monthly meeting. In attendance were the families of the scouts as well as the leaders of several other local troops from the Fredonia, Dunkirk, Brocton and Cassadaga area. To earn the award, they each completed a prerequisite Girl Scout Journey to prepare them for leading a project and then the girls worked more than 20 hours over the past year learning about the Emerald Ash Borer, an invasive beetle, that is infesting and killing Ash trees in the area and designing a project to educate the community. They designed, produced, and distributed posters to 10 campgrounds around Chautauqua County to help educate campground owners and campers about the Emerald Ash Borer, how they can report sightings of the beetle, and how to prevent the spread of the beetle to new areas.