Girl Scouts, from left to right, Payton Benito, Annalise Boucher, Isabella Hujber, Ella Kettles, Lilyanan Van Cott and Anna Murrings celebrated Earth Day on April 23.
Almost forty Girl Scouts braved the rain on Sunday, April 23, to celebrate Earth Day. Suffield Girl Scouts are very fortunate to have been welcomed by the Friends of the Farm at Hilltop and most appreciative of Bobbie Rogers for sharing her knowledge and experience and offering to lead our Girl Scouts with informational sessions on composting. The sessions explained both how and why to compost and included samples of composted materials for some hands-on learning.
After composting, participants popped over to the chicken coop where fellow Girl Scout Janine Eitel was standing by to educate them on the care and keeping of chickens, a topic on which she will focus her Gold Award (the highest achievement within Girl Scouts).
Jess Turner and Amy Healy, leaders of Junior Troop 10990, attended the Earth Day activities at Hilltop Farm because we are all interested in how we can better care for ourselves, our community and the earth. This fun and carefree troop weathered the drizzle and had fun doing the scavenger hunt together in the rain. The scavenger hunt was created specifically for the event.
Also, on the agenda that day was making seed balls from recycled paper. Troop 11963 collected paper from their homes, families and teachers. Some were meticulously hand cut while a few had been through a home shredder for tiny scrap to make two large buckets of a pulpy wildflower seed mixture, one geared towards pollinators and the other to birds/butterflies.
Each Girl Scout was presented with a scoop of the wet mixtures which they squeezed firmly to remove excess water, shaped into a ball and took home ready for planting. Hopefully many Suffield gardens will soon be graced with beautiful blooms.
This year’s Earth Day event was run by Troop 11963. This Cadette troop consists of six impressive young women who desire to create more outdoor opportunities for Suffield’s Girl Scouts. The event was almost entirely funded by generous donations they received at their two recent cookie booths (thank you, Suffield!).