My Gold Award Project
My Gold Award project addressed the global problem of pollinator and native plant decline. I chose to address this problem by designing and planting a native plant and pollinator garden at Girl Scout Camp Keyauwee. This gave pollinators in the area another habitat where they can have access to food and water and a place to breed. My Gold Award Advisor was Mrs. Carol Plaster, Camp Keyauwee Outdoor Experience Manager, and she chose the site for my garden and instructed me it needed to be 12' x 12'. The garden is located directly across from the camp's Craft House and is bordered by woods to it’s back and left with Lake Early bordering the right. Lake Early will be a close water source for all pollinators visiting the garden.
My project Expert Advisor was Mr. Cody Craddock, Extension Agent, Agriculture - Horticulture, Randolph County Center. I met with him and he was very helpful in sharing which native plants would be best and explaining the soil in the area where the garden was to be planted. I also met with several Guilford County Master Gardeners to seek their knowledge as to which native plants to plant. I attended their Spring native plant sale and purchased several native plants. I also attended a meeting with the NC Native Plant Association Triad Chapter where I was given even more advice on what to plant. They also donated several native plants to me.
The first task was for me to design the garden and decide which native plants to plant and where to place them. I then created a Genius signup sheet with the scheduled work days for the garden and emailed it to all of my team members. Our work days could only be on Sunday afternoons from 2:00pm- 6:00pm due to Summer Girl Scout camps already starting. I chose to start with the dates of April 27, May 4, May 11, and May 18. Camp Keyauwee donated mulch and rocks that they already had on the property. I ordered the topsoil that was needed. I had a great team members to help me plant the garden! The first Sunday of work in the garden I led my team members in building a border around the garden area with rocks that we had to find, dig up, and haul in a truck back to the garden site. We then covered the ground inside the rocks with cardboard to help prevent the growth of weeds and grass, and finally we spread the topsoil onto the cardboard. At our second garden work day I led my team members as they planted the native plants, watered them, and added the mulch. During the third garden work day I led my team members as they replaced dead plants, added new plants, and added more mulch. The fourth visit to the garden was to place the garden sign I had designed. My Gold Award project required for me to create a sign to place in the garden explaining the garden was a Gold Award project. The sign needed to tell I did the project, what troop I was from, and the name of the project. I designed the garden sign to resemble the Girl Scout Trefoil. I received help with designing it from Jamie Tracy, Office Manager, at Carolina Custom signs & Graphics. The sign includes images of North Carolina's state butterfly (Eastern Tiger Swallowtail) and state insect (Honeybee). The fifth garden work day several of my team members helped to transport a wooden rowboat I had restored and repurposed to the garden site. The wooden rowboat was once used by Girl Scouts at Camp Keyauwee. I found the rowboat in the woods while working at the camp's Equestrian Center when I was a Junior Girl Scout. I thought my Mom would like to use it for her garden at home and we were given permission to take it. However, Mom never had the chance to use it. She had kept it covered and out of the weather. When I decided to plant a native plant and pollinator garden at Camp Keyauwee I knew I wanted to repurpose and restore it so I could return it to where it truly belonged. Several of my team volunteers helped me restore it and now it sits in the middle of the garden being admired by all Girl Scouts and visitors to Camp Keyauwee!
My project also required including an Educational piece. I developed a twenty minute presentation about the importance of pollinators and native plants. I also developed a pre and post knowledge presentation evaluation. I chose to make the presentation to my troop's Juniors, Cadette's, Seniors, and Ambassadors, during one of our regularly scheduled Monday night meetings. Before the presentation each Girl Scout and each leader was given a pre-knowledge evaluation to complete. The presentation was then presented. After it was completed each Girl Scout was given a post-knowledge evaluation so I could measure knowledge gained. Every attendant at my presentation increased their knowledge from pre- presentation to post-presentation! They were excited about what I presented and had several questions after the presentation.
Building a website that would explain my Gold Award was also a requirement. I would also need a QR code included on the garden sign so that when it was scanned would lead to the website. I had no experience in doing any of these things. It took a lot of time researching how to do them and reaching out to people who did know how to do them. In order to create a website to explain my Gold Award project I reached out to Cecilia Adams who is a web designer. She met with me and went over how to use the WIX application to create my website.
It has been fun learning I could use so many of the leadership skills I have gained from being a Girl Scout over the past seven years! The accomplishment of earning my Girl Scout Gold Award has given me so much confidence in what I am truly capable of accomplishing!
​
​
