HELENA - Kalley May, a Girl Scout of Montana and Wyoming, earned her Girl Scout Gold Award, the highest achievement a girl scout can earn.
May has been a girl scout since kindergarten and continues to embody the values of the organization.
Gold awards are a top honor and are only presented to girls who have planned and executed projects that are sustainable and improve a need in their community.
It is given to fewer than 6% of girl scouts annually.
May has had a passion for softball since third grade.
This is why she decided to focus her project on repairing and updating the Frank Mihelish Youth Softball Fields.
She has played softball for Helena High School for the past three years.
She replaced both of the wooden backstops.
“I replaced the wood, sanded it down, cut it down to length and then we stained them with a shark stain, which is a weatherproofing stain that allows the boards not to erode from water. And so, we did that to both fields and then replaced the plywood and rubber,” May said, “And then I also added the HH decal here and down at the JV field we have a paw print.”
Then created a more level terrain around the field.
“We added a layer of lime rock,” said May, “So, it creates a level surface for any gear bags, strollers for the bleacher area and also gives it a nice clean and finished look.”
Finally, repaired nets in the batting cages.
“These just kinda get worn from wear and tear every time we take them up or put them down and so they get holes in them, especially down here at the bottom,” May said, “Repairing the hole gave the nets a new life and saved us the cost of having to replace them as a program and also removed the security risk.”
May said the whole process took three years to totally complete.
