Bordentown’s Girl Scout troop 24126 is earning its Bronze Award for painting inspirational and positive quotes on the walls of the girl’s and boy’s locker room and bathrooms at Bordentown Regional Middle School.
The troop, who were fifth graders at the time that they began planning, were brainstorming ideas for their award almost a year ago.
In order for a girl scout troop to earn their bronze award, each troop member must complete 20 hours worth of community service work. The work that the troop chooses to do must have a lasting impact on their community.
One of the troop’s leaders, Cristy Ortu, is a science teacher at BRMS, and was sharing some examples of other girl scout projects that she knew of. Ortu mentioned that a BRMS student named Rayna earned her Silver Award (the second highest Girl Scout honor) six years prior by painting uplifting quotes on the walls of the locker rooms and bathrooms.
Ortu recalls the girls being excited about completing this project.
“They all jumped on the idea,” Ortu said.
Many of the girls in the troop will be attending BRMS in the fall, and wanted to do something that would affect people in their age group.
“We wanted to do something that would make an impact on our peers,” said Frankie Ortu, a scout from troop 24126.
“It’s mainly for middle schoolers who are feeling down,” said Claire Dressel, another girl in the troop. “It can lift them up.”
Ortu took photos of the quotes that had been painted around the building and showed them to the girls at their next meeting.
After completing some research and taking it to a vote, the girls decided that this was the project that they wanted to complete. The quotes that had been previously painted onto the walls of the school were beginning to fade, so the girls planned to repaint those and add two of their own.
The girls recalled one of the hardest parts of the planning process was getting the troop to agree on the colors and font themes for the quotes.
The troop wrote a letter to the Bordentown Board of Education and presented their idea to the school’s PTO to get their project approved.
Moreover, the troop met up with the student who had previously painted the quotes on the walls to get tips on how to paint and to figure out what supplies they needed. To help the girls get started, Rayna donated her art supplies that she had previously used to complete the project to the troop.
To raise money for the materials needed, the troop completed donation-based gift wrapping at the holiday bazaar the PTO hosted at the middle school in December. The PTO donated a $100 Lowe’s gift card to the troop, and BRMS’ principal, Joseph Sprague, helped the troop coordinate dates to paint with the school’s custodial staff.
The troop, which consisted of eight girls, completed the project this past July. They spent three days painting, each day being from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Despite the heat inside the building, the girls worked together to repaint a total of ten quotes as well as the additional two quotes that the troop added in the girl’s locker room, breaking into small groups to work on each quote.
The quotes that the troop added were: “Each time a woman stands up for herself, she stands up for all women” and “There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish”.
“I’m so proud of everything we’ve accomplished,” Frankie said. “We had a lot of fun doing [the project], it was fun to do it together.”
“Even though it was hot, we still did [the project] as a team and we didn’t give up,” Dressel said.
The troop plans to continue in their girl scout experience this school year and will be recognized at a Bordentown committee meeting on Sept. 9 for their achievement.
