Local Girl Scout makes a difference at animal shelter
Dogs at the North Fork Animal Welfare League shelter in Peconic will have a new roof over their heads this winter thanks to a Mattituck Girl Scout’s recently completed Gold Award project.
Callie McLean, a senior at Mattituck High School and Girl Scout ambassador in Troop 2566, has been heavily involved volunteering with the shelter since 2019. The shelter is one of two no-kill facilities run by NFAWL, in Southold and Riverhead towns. While volunteering at the former, she noticed that many of the dogs housed there were living in broken-down dog houses.
When deciding what to work on for her Gold Award project in November 2023, Callie knew that she wanted to help the animals at the shelter. Her project was approved in February and she started construction of the dog houses in October and completed them at the end of November.
The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest accolade in Girl Scouting. Roughly 3,300 Girl Scouts earn the award every year. The project’s aim is to establish something in the community that will positively affect others long after it is completed, whether it be a tangible end product like Callie’s dog houses, a new nonprofit organization, website or other initiative.
“I’m just really happy I could give back to my community in a way to help animals,” Callie said. This was not the first time Callie completed a project to benefit the Southold shelter, having made cat beds as part of her Bronze Award project.
She said it took roughly 100 hours to complete all five dog houses, which she built in her family’s garage with help from Frank Bieler of New Suffolk, a retired woodworker.
“[Mr. Bieler] helped with a lot of her stuff,” Callie’s father, Derek McLean. “He brought a lot of stuff to his house and cut it and brought it back, because some of the stuff — I don’t have the tools for that. So Frank was very instrumental in doing that.”
Other community members pitched in to help with the project by donating materials like scrap wood or writing checks to help pay for what could not be donated. Shingles left over from another project around the McLean house were attached to the roofs of the houses as well.
“It’s just a very nice community that we live in, that they want to help Callie do this,” Mr. McLean said.
She is happy to help the shelter “tucked away” on Peconic Lane.
“Unless you’re really looking for it, you don’t really know that it’s there,” Callie said. “I just think it’s something I really am happy I finally got to complete, because now I know that the dogs there will be more comfortable away from all of the weather.”
As she prepares to graduate this spring, Callie hopes to get a Navy or Army Reserve Officers’ Training Corps scholarship when applying to colleges. She is currently battalion commander for the NJROTC unit at Mattituck High School.
For more information on how to get involved with Girl Scouts, visit girlscouts.org. To learn more about getting involved with the Southold animal shelter, visit northforkanimalwelfareleague.org.
