Meeting with Daisy Girl Scouts at Town Hall

Today I had an awesome experience and I was glad to be able to bring Nicholas along to experience it with me.

I have been working for quite some time on getting a wooden fort-like handicapped accessible playground built in our town. The concept has been approved and the playground will probably cost somewhere around $400,000. Although most of the expense of the actual playground will be covered by the town, I would also like to see educational stations throughout the playground to teach children about nature and the environment. A local Daisy Girl Scout troop contacted me last fall and said that they wanted to help with fundraising for the playground. I met with the girls at their first troop meeting and talked to them about plants, both literally and figuratively. We talked about how everyone, even young people, can plant seeds and watch them grow. We talked about planting seeds in terms of the playground such as talking to the Parks board about the concept of the playground and getting the idea approved. We talked about how fundraising was like watering the seeds and feeding a dream. Then we talked about having patience and watching the fruits of our labor grow into a wonderful playground that our whole community can be proud of. The girls have worked on fundraising all year through a garage sale/lemonade stand, cookie sales, and individual chore money. Today I met with a few of the Daisy Girl Scouts at Town Hall where they turned over their donation to the town. Their donation will specifically go towards the educational stations for children in the playground. I'm just so proud of these girls for their dedication and hard work. It just goes to show how young people can make a difference in their communities.

I was glad that Nicholas was able to come with me to the meeting. I've talked to him about each step that I've made along the way in this project so he knows all about the troop and their fundraising efforts. But it was great for him to get to meet these young girls and see first hand how they got involved in the project.

The girls got to meet the Director of Parks and Recreation. We talked some about the Parks and Recreation Department and projects they are working on, including our playground. Then the Director showed the children the Town Council chambers. He let them sit in the Town Council member's chairs. But the coolest part was when the Director turned on the microphones and let the "new council members" speak to the rest of us. The kids had such a blast! Nicholas even got to use the Mayor's gavel!