Jamestown student earns Girl Scout Gold Award for park cleanup
Kaeonna Radtke’s Gold Award left a cleaner, safer-looking footprint across seven Jamestown parks, with her service unit now planning to keep one of them adopted.
Jamestown High School senior Kaeonna Radtke turned a Girl Scout Gold Award project into something neighbors can see and use: a cleanup effort that reached seven parks across Jamestown and left the sites looking cleaner, safer and more welcoming.
Radtke partnered with the Jamestown Parks and Recreation Department to identify problem areas and organize the work. Even with a smaller turnout than hoped, volunteers still made a visible difference in the parks before gathering afterward for hot dogs and ice cream.
The project went beyond a single cleanup day. Radtke shared the effort with her local Girl Scout Service Unit, which agreed to adopt a park and keep up the work over time. That follow-through connects her Gold Award to Jamestown Parks and Recreation’s Adopt-A-Park/Trail Program, a volunteer-based effort intended to help maintain cleanliness and safety in parks and trails by giving selected sites extra care and attention.
Radtke’s Gold Award recognition places her among Girl Scouts who complete projects built around lasting solutions to community problems. Girl Scouts says the award is earned by seniors and Ambassadors who develop and carry out work that addresses issues in their neighborhoods and beyond, and recipients may apply for a national scholarship for post-secondary education.
She will be recognized at Honoring Excellence on June 14, 2026, at 1:30 p.m. at the Armory Event Center in Moorhead, Minnesota. Girl Scouts Dakota Horizons says the ceremony honors Bronze, Silver and Gold Award Girl Scouts, along with adult award recipients, from across the council.
The council says its reach spans more than 955 cities, towns and communities across 164,000 square miles, including 13 Native American reservations and three Air Force bases. Against that backdrop, Radtke’s project stands out as a local example of youth leadership with visible results in Stutsman County. A student from Jamestown did not just complete a service requirement; she helped shape a cleaner public space and set up a plan for continued care.
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