Eastern Missouri Girl Scouts Upcycle to Beautify Middle School Garden
America Recycles Day, celebrated yearly on November 15, is a day to spread information on the importance of recycling and how to reduce waste. Local Girl Scouts Charlotte Bohn, Lily Tindira and Mary Wolf-Slinkard decided to do their part for the environment and restore the unkempt garden at their local middle school.
Due to COVID-19, the garden area at Parkway Northeast Middle School had become overgrown and needed renovation. So, these young change-makers led a team of volunteers to weed, mulch and replant the garden to earn their Girl Scout Silver Award. After removing the unkempt growth, the girls re-fertilized the area, germinated the plants and added them to the space. They then rebuilt and painted garden boxes and birdhouses to place in the garden. Next, the girls upcycled cardboard boxes to use as weed barriers and obtained trash receptacles for the garden. Additionally, the girls provided for the chickens kept at the school by cleaning up the area and providing winter lodging to keep them comfortable during the cold months. To complete their project, the girls created notes on gardening techniques and how to obtain free mulch to share with the gardening club at Parkway Northeast Middle School.
“The more young women that earn their Girl Scout Highest Awards, the more people will hear about our work,” said Tindira. “Our Silver Award project helped our school, but it also took months and hundreds of hours to finish.”
The Girl Scout Silver Award is the highest honor a Girl Scout Cadette, girls in 6th-8th grade can achieve. It requires girls to identify a need in their community and dedicate on average more than 50 hours towards addressing and solving the issue. When Girl Scout Cadettes focus on an issue, they care about, learn the facts, take action to make a difference, and they gain the confidence and skills that catapult them to lifelong success.
