By Sue Moore
The Schoolcraft Girl Scout Troop 80302 recently completed a project that earned them a Bronze Award, the highest they could receive at the Junior Girl Scout level. This award is intended to encourage scouts to explore their community and its needs. There are eight girls in the troop, all in 5th grade in Schoolcraft.
First, they found a need at the Eagles Nest food pantry. They decided they could help by replacing the cardboard boxes that held food donations for the pantry at Harding’s Market and the Schoolcraft Community Library. They built two sturdy wooden boxes to replace the cardboard ones that didn’t hold much weight and weren’t very attractive.
To get the project started, they met with Jan McNally and Peg Crissman, who help out with the food pantry each week, to find out what was needed. The girls drew up plans after visiting both sites to see how big they could build the collection boxes needed to hold all the food donations placed in them.
They wrote a letter to Big C Lumber looking for help with blueprints and building the boxes. Big C graciously donated all the lumber and half off on the purple and yellow paint needed to make them in Schoolcraft colors, according to scout leader Toni Rafferty. By painting them, the girls thought the boxes would be more obvious to the public and thus draw more food donations. The rest of the supplies were purchased at Big C and B&G Discount. A scout dad helped to build the boxes, teaching the girls how to use a variety of tools.
The girls spent 160 plus hours in meetings, planning, purchasing, working and presenting this project Rafferty pointed out. Both boxes made it to their new homes after being shown to the Schoolcraft School Board at its March meeting.