Two Dodge Girl Scouts earn Gold Award

Susan Kranz, left, and Sarah Taber earned the highest award in Girl Scouts, the Gold Award.

Susan Krantz and Sarah Taber of Dodge Girl Scout Troop 1170 have earned the Gold Award, which is the highest award for the Scouts.

The Gold Award has five sets of requirements, which demand organizational, time management and leadership skills. Kranz

chose to design a Gold Award project involving dance and entertainment for senior citizens.

She enlisted the help of 11 girls in her dance company "Live Love Dance." She choreographed, instructed, rehearsed, costumed, promoted and orchestrated a one hour dance show for seniors, and it was performed at five different locations.

Taber's life-long love of animals inspired her to focus her project on squirrel habitats and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

She interned at the Transit Valley Animal Hospital and volunteered at the SPCA, where she found out there was a need for squirrel boxes. Stray baby squirrels are often delivered to the SPCA by concerned citizens. The boxes serve as a temporary home for the young to grow and then be released. Taber built 15 of the boxes, using designs available online and wood donated by some local lumber companies. She also developed and presented an educational program about squirrels for children in an afterschool program at the Harlem Road Community Center.

Both girls are graduates of Williamsville North High school. Kranz attends the University at Buffalo and Taber is studying at Alfred State College.