U.S. Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., on Friday honored Jaydyn Child of Dillon, a Beaverhead County High School student who recently received one of the Girl Scouts’ highest awards, the Gold Award, for her project to raise awareness about suicide prevention among teens and adults in Montana.
Daines presented the award at the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new Girl Scouts of Montana and Wyoming office in Bozeman.
Child, a junior, received the honor for her service project titled “Teen Suicide — Your Life is Worth Living.” Through this project, she spent 150 hours working, fundraising, making bracelets and creating pamphlets to raise awareness.
Additionally she organized events in local schools for an anti-bullying speaker to educate students about suicide prevention.
Montana has one of the highest suicide rates in the nation, statistics show, and a rate twice the national average for suicide among teenagers and young adults.
Through his “Montanan of the Week” initiative, Daines each week highlights a Montanan by submitting a statement of recognition in the Congressional Record.
Daines welcomes anyone to nominate fellow Montanans for the “Montanan of the Week” program by calling his office at 202-224-2651 or by filling out the contact form on Daines’ website, www.daines.senate.gov/content/contact-steve.