New Lenox Girl Scouts Earn Bronze Award

On Sunday, June 7 Girl Scout Troop 125 completed their Bronze Award project with the installation of a butterfly way station garden in the New Lenox Commons. The Bronze Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Junior (4th and 5th grade) can earn.

Girl Scout Juniors Aubrey Jackson, Lauren McGreal, Sydney Rinker, and Megan Trevarthan started planning last year for ways to earn their Bronze Award. In September, the troop met and discussed project ideas which included a community clean up, helping a local animal shelter or animal sanctuary, and building a butterfly garden. The girls voted to do all four things, but decided on the butterfly garden as it was a more sustainable project.

The project started with meeting with Master Gardener, Nancy Kuhujda from the University of IL Extension Office who taught the girls about the importance of Monarch butterflies and helped the girls develop a garden plan. Next, the girls secured a site for the garden so they met with New Lenox Mayor Tim Baldermann to propose their project. The mayor gave the girls a space in the center of town, in the New Lenox Commons for their garden. The girls finished their garden project prep work from home during the Covid-19 lock down by planting and growing annual flowers and herbs for the garden and painting rocks and plant markers.

In June the girls worked with the village of New Lenox Public Works department to prepare a plot. The following week the garden was planted in the Commons. The garden is a beautiful addition to the Commons which many walkers and community members enjoy as they walk along the path. The garden includes 15 different varieties of plants, including host plants for monarchs like milkweed and both annual and perennial nectar plants. The girls set up a watering schedule to be sure the plants are watered daily. The garden habitat is also registered online in the National Way Station Registry as a Certified Butterfly Way Station.

The project included more than 40 hours of service work and will be an endeavor that the girls will continue to take care of and plan for each year.

Troop leaders Cindy Jackson and Sherry Trevarthan are very proud of these young ladies. Cindy said " The girls accomplished a lot this year working to complete their Bronze Award, building and donating four bat houses to Chubby Goat Acres Animal Sanctuary in Schoolcraft Michigan, volunteering at PIP Animal Rescue Fest, volunteering at the annual scout food drive, and doing a community garbage clean up along with many other fun events they participated in throughout the year. These four young ladies are prepared to bridge to Cadette Girl Scouts as they enter sixth grade."

"It's been fun watching the girls work together this year" said co-leader Sherry Trevarthan. "They all have a heart for nature and animals and used their skills and creativity to do many wonderful things."