HELENA — Makena Pedersen and Aurora Obie have created an app through a partnership between Starbase Montana, Code Girls United and Helena schools that they will present at the nation’s capitol to showcase their coding and technology skills.

Obie says, “Our app is called Stay Fetch and it helps people to find the right dog for them like based on their lifestyle.”

Pedersen and Obie are eighth graders at Helena Middle School and are the 2024 winners of the Congressional App Challenge for Montana’s second district.

“I think it means a lot to us just because we were actually in seventh grade when we submitted our app and when we looked there were only high schoolers…there has never really been middle schoolers that have won it has all been high school or up," Pedersen says.

The challenge is a nationwide event in which middle and high school students compete against their peers by creating an app and demonstrating their software skills.

Obie and Pedersen created their app because of the issue of people returning pets to shelters because they are not a good fit.

The girls coded and designed the app with a lifestyle form, dog breed index, and GPS that shows all the shelters nearby over the course of six months.

Pedersen says “I was also doing volleyball and basketball at the time so just going on with having time for Code Girls and sports and having Aurora help me.”

Teamwork, time management, and of course coding skills are all lessons the girls will take away from their victory, but also problem-solving.

“Mostly like figuring out why things weren’t working and fixing them," Obie says.

Two young women from Kalispell will represent Montana's first congressional district with their app.

Winners nationwide are invited to the National Science Fair in D.C. and Makena and Aurora need the community’s help to be able to present their app to representatives at the nation’s capitol.

To make a donation and learn more about their trip visit this website.