Members of Girl Scout Troop 70614 have been working hard to "make the world a better place," one part of the Girl Scout Law. In May, the Junior troop members beautified the grounds around the amphitheater in Elizabethtown Borough Park, earning their Bronze Award in the process. The Bronze is the highest award that can be earned by Girl Scout Juniors, who are fourth- and fifth-grade students.

The girls started the project by brainstorming ways to help their community. Originally, they planned to fix up areas around the playground in the park.

"We were thinking we were going to build bird and bat boxes," said troop member Ava Livelsberger. "But we started talking to people from the park, and we realized that wasn't something that solved a problem for someone. We wanted to do a project that solved a problem."

Instead, the girls organized a park cleanup and met with Ken Dyer, Elizabethtown Borough's parks superintendent, to discuss needs in the park. They decided to replace a strip of grass bordering the amphitheater with a mulched bed of perennials and annuals, adding beauty to the area and making it easier for groundskeepers to mow while preventing damage to the amphitheater from weed whackers.

To complete the project, the troop obtained donations from River Road Produce, Warburton Nursery and Greenhouses, and J.B. Hostetter & Sons. Ed Ziegler of Ed's Landscaping Supply met with the girls to discuss plant options and gardening techniques and provided a sod cutter for the girls to use to dig up the grass. The troop members removed the sod, fertilized the soil, planted a variety of plants including marigolds and hostas, and mulched the space. The girls plan to make a summer watering schedule and check on their plantings regularly.

For troop member Valerie Hall, the project provided a fun way to give back to the community. "I liked getting to plant the flowers, and I like watering them," she said.

Gwen Hoover said the hardest part was using the sod cutter and removing the sod. "It was hard to lift the rolls of dirt," she recalled. "They were heavy!"

Faith McClellan said she's proud of how the project turned out. "I wanted to do this project because it's something good for the community, and it also looks really nice," she stated.

Her fellow troop member Piper Checkeye agreed, adding, "I really liked that we got to help our community, and I really liked planting the hostas because we got to dig bigger and deeper holes."

Brianna Thatcher noted that she had helped her mom plant flowers before, but not to this extent. "This was the most gardening I've ever done," she said. "I liked planting the marigolds the best."

For Eleni Brehm, the project was just another thing she loves about being a Girl Scout. "This was fun to do, but my favorite part of being a Girl Scout is when you knock on someone's door and they open it and say, 'Oh, it's a Girl Scout selling cookies! Let me go get my money!'"