Sweet Sustainability
Four Junior Girl Scouts from Troop 143 made a “paw-sitive” impact on their community through their Bronze Award project focused on giving Girl Scout Cookies boxes a second life!
Brylee, Ellanor, Bridget, and Aubrey have always loved selling Girl Scout Cookies, but something about all that colorful cardboard going to waste got them thinking about how they could make a difference. That’s when they came up with the idea to recycle the boxes for another purpose: animal welfare!
“To recycle the waste into something useful for the community humane society. They took all their boxes and made them into cardboard cat scratchers,” says Troop 143 Leader, Jessica Franklin.
To help share their project and inspire others, the group of Juniors created a YouTube video tutorial detailing how their cat scratchers rep by step. In addition to their cat scratchers, the Girl Scouts also learned how to turn blankets into tug chew toys for dogs.
They gained many skills throughout their project which involved collaborating with several stakeholders and community members in order to be successful.
“They learned that planning and organization of people takes a lot more time than they thought […] When they volunteered in the community to help care for animals, they learned how hard it can be to clean up after multiple pets,” says Jessica.
After making several cat scratchers and blanket pull toys, they were able to donate the finished products to a local humane society for pets waiting for forever homes to enjoy!
