When Junior Girl Scouts, Alexis, Ashlyn, Blythe, Eve, Hope, Molly, Scarlet, and Stella noticed a major lack of access to fun, free activities for children in their community—particularly throughout the pandemic—they knew they wanted to help.
After a bit of digging in the Waterville area to determine what was available to local kids, the eight Juniors from Troop 545 decided that the Children’s Discovery Museum (CDM) in Waterville would be the perfect organization to team up with.
“We decided to work with CDM because their mission to ignite curiosity and celebrate learning through play fits with the community issue that we wanted to address,” say the girls.
The girls started by serving as beta-testers for the newly established museum, testing out exhibits and choosing their own impactful project to begin working on within the discovery center.
“The girls chose to design and execute new mobile museum panels that will impact over 3,000 local children annually and help promote the museum as a community resource for families,” says Troop 545 Leader Sara Flanagan.
By the end of their project, the girls created four museum panels that CDM will be able to transport to local places like farmers’ markets, schools, libraries, and community events. The boards will allow children to play, learn, and spark imagination free of charge.
“The girls loved the idea of creating something that other children can play with for years to come, and something they will be able to see being used out in the community […] throughout this project, they each learned to appreciate each other’s creativity, communicate ideas, and compromise appropriately,” says Sara.