Tooele Transcript Bulletin – News in Tooele, Utah

March 7, 2013
Tooele County Girl Scouts complete thousands of hours of service

March 12 marks the 101st year of Girl Scouting. For the past year, Tooele County Girl Scouts have been involved in celebrating this amazing milestone in history.

The founder of Girl Scouts, Juliette Gordon Low, always encouraged girls to provide service to others. The Girl Scout law states to “make the world a better place.” In honor of our 100th year, 14 troops in Tooele County kept track of the service they provided to the community.

In the last few weeks, Girl Scouts attended city council meetings in Tooele, Stansbury and Grantsville, and attended a Tooele County Commission meeting. They presented to each council an account of the service Girl Scouts provided in 2012 and a picture collage of some of the projects.

Troops participated in more than 35 service projects this year. Some of the projects were providing a community Halloween carnival, making items for children in the hospital, helping animals in the shelter, sponsoring families at Christmas, collecting donations for the food bank, making items for the homeless, picking up garbage, helping with a camp for teens with disabilities and more.

The biggest service project they participated in together was a “Forever Green” project. A total of 115 girls, leaders and parents worked together this fall when they discovered that the residents at Rocky Mountain Care Center were in need of help in their outdoor area.

With the help of some very generous sponsors, more than $1,500 in supplies were donated to the project. Each troop also built and decorated a birdhouse for the garden. Girls and adults worked alongside each other all morning.

The first task at hand was to prepare the ground. Everyone spent hours with shovels, hoes and rakes taking out the dead debris, weeds and grass from two sides of the yard and three planter boxes. Once this was done, fresh soil was brought in and cement pavers and redwood timbers were laid to line the areas. Now it was ready for planting. Everyone helped to dig the holes and then place bulbs and plants throughout the new garden.

The areas were finished with a layer of rock barrier around the plants and the birdhouses were placed within the garden. The planter boxes were raised 2 feet so that the residents could reach them from their wheelchairs. This will also allow residents to have an accessible area that they can garden in next summer. The planters were then given new soil and a fresh coat of paint.

The final result was breathtaking. The task took five hours to complete. In all, Girl Scouts collectively spent more than 600 hours creating a new rain garden for some very special community residents.

Girl Scout troops throughout Tooele County provided more than 2,385 hours of service in 2012. This account shows measurable and real proof that girls can, in fact, change the world.

Girl Scouts are making a difference in the world around them. We can guarantee that the community will continue to see service provided by Girl Scouts throughout Tooele County and beyond.

Girl Scouts would like to thank the community for all the support they give us. One way everyone helps Girl Scouting is purchasing Girl Scout cookies. Cookie booths begin March 8 and will be out for two weeks.

You can find your favorite cookies at booths all around the county. The profit girls earn from selling cookies help to fund service projects, field trips and camps. Make sure you stock up on all your favorites.

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