Girl Scouts Get Ready for Earth Day at Spring-Ford 5-6 Grade Center

The blustery winds and chilly air, on the afternoon of April 3, did not deter the enthusiasm of the Girl Scout Cadets from Troop 7902, as they began their annual community service project in celebration of the upcoming Earth Day this month.

“They always look forward to it,” Arlene Hudak, co-leader of GS Troop 7902, said.

The 17 Girl Scouts of the troop are also all sixth-grade students at the 5-6 Grade Center in Spring-Ford Area School District, where they spent their afternoon picking up trash and planting new flower beds in front of their school.

According to Hudak, this is the second year the GS Troop 7902 chose to commit their annual Earth Day community service at the Spring-Ford school.

Hudak said, in years prior, the troop had participated in various Earth-Day related community service projects, including cleaning up Manderach Park and the Perkiomen Creek with the Perkiomen Watershed Conservancy.

She said, last year, as the troop entered the 5-6 Grade Center as fifth graders, they decided to focus their annual community service in their own backyard.

“We wanted them to see the changes they created,” Hudak said.

The Girl Scouts helped clean up and beautify the school’s courtyard by creating large flower beds, and planting a Japanese Maple tree. Hudak said that the school has continued with the courtyard improvements by placing a walk way, which will contain stepping stones decorated by members of the sixth-grade art classes.

Hudak said that the Spring-Ford school administration was encouraging in their response to the community service idea.

“We are really appreciative of the girls’ work,” Heather Nuneviller, Spring-Ford 5-6 Grade Center principal said, while observing the scouts at work. “We really enjoy their community service and we’re glad that it’s kids from our school doing the community service for us.”

“We try to find a need and fill it,” Jen Kuklentz, GS Troop 7902 co-leader, said.

Last year, Hudak and Kuklentz were able to procure local business support to subsidize the necessary landscaping materials. This year, the troop earned a donation of $15 each from their families by doing chores around their homes, which was enough to purchase the flowers, mulch and potting soil.

For the community service project, the Girl Scouts broke into two teams, one going around the school and picking up small pieces of trash and debris, while the other team began creating flowerbeds and filling large potted containers in front of the 5-6 Grade Center walkway. Later, the second team would create flowerbeds along the walkway of the 7^th-Grade Center.

With each task, the Girl Scouts never lost their enthusiasm.

“We have fun,” Kuklentz said. “We try to do things that they normally wouldn’t get to do.”

In addition to being able to dig up the dirt and plant flowers in front off their school, GS Troop 7902 has also participated in winter community service projects, such as sponsoring a family in need, as well as embark on camping trips or day trips to Gettysburg and Washington, D.C. for last year’s centennial anniversary.

According to Hudak, such experiences will lead the Girl Scouts to learn life lessons and make life-long friendships.

In turn, the Girl Scout members said they were grateful that their troop co-leaders provide such experiences for them.

“They give us guidance to become better people in our world,” Devi Spletzer, Girl Scout Troop 7902 member, said.

Toward the end of the event, several of the girls summed up what their participation in the annual Earth Day community service project means to them:

• Gabby – “Accountability”

• Kristen – “Thoughtfulness”

• Devi – “Responsibility”

• Jess – “Respectfulness”

• Rylee – “Cleanliness”

• Zoe – “Encouraging.”