CONNOQUENESSING TWP — The hurricane-battered Gulf Coast has received a lot of relief aid in the past months: food, water, housing, blankets and even pet rescue.

Girl Scouts Molly Gagnon and Vickie Cox are sending other items — agricultural supplies.

The two 17-year-old seniors at Butler Senior High School collected hay, livestock feed and other items to be trucked to Mississippi where state officials will distribute the farm supplies.

"We were originally going to try to help the animals down there, but then we saw that farmers had a greater need," said Gagnon, who wants to be a veterinarian.

They said a lot of people are helping those who live in cities, so they are supporting farmers whose lives depend on their farms and livestock.

Cox and Gagnon called their effort the Help and Aid Flooded Farmers project, or HAFF.

The two scouts collected items at three locations in the past two weeks. The goods went to Harrisburg, then they will be sent along with other items from across the country to help damaged agriculture areas in Mississippi.

"It's been really fun so far," said Cox.

The teens did all the work for the project, including passing out flyers, setting up collection places and loading trucks. They also will travel to Mississippi to see the result of their work.

Vickie Cox's father drove the truck full of collected supplies to Harrisburg Friday morning. The scouts had collected six rolls of hay, fencing supplies, water buckets and a "good supply" of livestock feed, said Barry Shutt, the director of food distribution with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

"They've been a great help. I think it's an admirable job they did," Shutt said.

The agriculture department will wait for other collection efforts from across the state before hiring a truck driver to take the goods to Mississippi on Tuesday.

The girls did this project for their Girl Scouts Gold Awards. They are members of Troop 903 in Butler, and have been friends and neighbors in Connoquenessing Township since they were young, Cox said.

The project began when Cox, who is the Hereford Queen of Western Pennsylvania, a title bestowed by the National Junior Hereford Association, contacted the Louisiana state Hereford queen. They knew each other from a cattle show in Wisconsin they attended.

They were redirected to Mississippi, where a state Department of Agriculture official told them farm supplies were being collected.

According to the Mississippi Department of Agriculture, Hurricane Katrina substantially damaged the poultry, cotton, dairy, corn, rice and pecan industries. In the southern part of the state, cattle producers face damaged fences and a lack of feed.

Mississippi put out the request for supplies in early September. Numerous states have helped that state's damaged farms.

The two scouts and their mothers will travel there on Tuesday, when the supplies arrive.

"We want to pitch in with helping the community," said Gagnon's mother, Joyce, who is the troop's leader.

"The girls put a lot of work into the community here," she said of the troop members, mentioning that two other troop members, Sera May and Angela Carothers, are working toward their Gold Awards at White Oak Springs Church, Renfrew.

Besides being in the Pennsylvania Junior Hereford Association, Cox is active in the 4-H Club and in the Butler Bee Breeding Club. Gagnon is in the Butler High School Band, the Latin Club and she teaches Sunday school.