Three Sparta girl scouts earn their Silver Awards
SPARTA Three Sparta Girl Scouts have earned their Silver Award by making Sparta more environmentally friendly. Their project culminated this past June when they planted nine new trees in front of the Sparta Middle School. Each tree is adorned with a plaque that displays the name of one academic team and an environmentally-related quotation. The young women were awarded their silver pin at an awards ceremony on Sept. 25, along with other award winners. The young women raised money for the trees by holding a Hat Day at the Middle School last year and by selling used children’s books at Sparta Day. Mohawk Gardens in Sparta provided the trees at a discount, and the Sparta Schools’ buildings and grounds department helped to plant the trees. In addition to the tree planting, each of the young women led a separate environmental portion of the project. Maya Drummond led an initiative to distribute energy-efficient compact fluorescent light bulbs to households in Sparta. With the help of other Girl Scouts, over 3,000 of the light bulbs were distributed. The light bulbs were supplied by Project Porchlight, a not-for-profit organization headquartered in Caldwell. Accompanying each light bulb was information regarding energy savings, as well as proper disposal procedures. Last February, Elizabeth Frye educated young girls on the benefits of using reusable water bottles instead of pre-bottled water. The younger Girl Scouts found out that approximately 76 percent of all water bottles end up in landfills and 1.5 million barrels of oil was used to produce the plastic bottles consumed in the U.S. last year. Lauren Petrin organized the collection and sale of used children’s books as a way to recycle these much-needed items. The proceeds from the sale helped pay for the trees, which she researched and ordered. In addition, Petrin designed the plaques displayed by each tree at the Middle School. The Silver Award is the highest award that a Cadette Girl Scout can earn. In addition to working for 40 hours on a service project, the girls are required to earn at least four badges, spend 15 hours in a leadership role and learn about different career options.