By Martie Thompson
editor@floridanewsline.com
Girl Scouts from Troop 2220 in Fruit Cove recently helped wildlife — and in the process earned the prestigious Silver Award, the highest award a scout can earn during her middle school years. It all started when, during one of the troop’s camping trips to Camp Kateri in Hawthorne, Florida, the girls noticed that a lot of bushes and trees had been cleared from the property.
The clearing was done to mitigate fire damage, but the troop wanted to do something to help the wildlife that they knew would be negatively impacted.
“The girls thought through how they could help the local wildlife reestablish their habitats,” Troop Leader Alicia Strang said. “This one thought evolved into two projects — birdhouses and bat boxes.”
To qualify for the Silver Award, scouts can work in small groups of up to three girls and have to put in 50 hours of work identifying a problem and taking action to make a difference. For Troop 2220, six of the nine scouts (two projects with three girls each) worked on the birdhouses and bat boxes.
“Part of the Silver Award is educating others on why we felt our projects were important and that is why we created signage that was installed at Camp Kateri along with the birdhouses and bat boxes,” said Strang. “This way, future campers would not only learn about our project and the importance of protecting the wildlife, but also have some guidance on how they could also make a difference as we included links for making their own.”
Strang said the troop earned certification from the Florida Wildlife Federation for their birdhouses and bat boxes.
Troop 2220 was started in 2017 when the girls were in kindergarten and first grade. The troop is still together and the girls are now between 12 and 14 years old.
Photo courtesy Jennifer Robertson
Girl Scouts from Troop 2220 with birdhouses.
