Girl Scout’s garden takes
root at seniors’ residence
BY CLARE MARIE CELANO
Staff Writer
CLARE MARIE CELANO First stage Cadette Girl Scout Lauren Wiemken helps Lorraine O’Brien smooth out the soil before planting flowers in a garden at Crossroads at Howell. Completing the project will help Lauren earn her Girl Scout Silver Award.
HOWELL — Lauren Wiemken loves to work outdoors. She also enjoys being with senior citizens, so when it came time for the local Girl Scout to earn her Silver Award, she chose a project that would allow her to do both.
Lauren, 14, a Howell High School freshman, planted a flower garden on the grounds of Crossroads at Howell, a residence for seniors. The apartment building is on Route 9 near Strickland Road.
Lauren has been a Girl Scout for seven years. At present she is a first stage Cadette Girl Scout, Troop 843, and she will cross the bridge to become a Senior Girl Scout next year.
In order to be eligible for a Silver Award, a Girl Scout must complete three community service projects.
One project that brought Lauren to Crossroads two years ago offered residents a hand massage program to help relieve stress. The Scouts were taught how to give a hand massage by a trained massage therapist. Part of the project included taking what they had learned and bringing it out into the community.
The hand massage program was enjoyable and relaxing, according to several Crossroads residents.
Wiemken said she realized then how much she enjoyed working with seniors and was looking forward to returning to the facility.
Her Girl Scout leader, Anita Durban of Howell, said Lauren bonded with several of the residents there.
Lauren said she thought that returning to Crossroads would be a good way to renew her relationships with her new friends and help her create a project that would lead to the Silver Award.
Durban said the Silver Award is difficult to achieve and requires 25 hours of preparation and a seven- to 10-hour project. In addition, the Girl Scout must procure all of the materials necessary to complete the project by seeking contributions.
In Lauren’s case, all of the flowers and garden tools that she used were donated by local merchants and shops.
Initially, Lauren and some of her friends, all fellow Silver Award winners, came to Crossroads on April 27 to till and ready the soil for the colorful flowers that would soon find their home in the soft earth. They returned on May 14 to plant the garden.
According to Durban, the idea is teamwork, and each girl helps another to achieve the desired goal. In addition, a Girl Scout who is working toward a Silver Award must also have the involvement of a younger troop. A group of Brownies helped the older girls plant the garden at Crossroads.
Lauren also engaged the help of Crossroads resident Lorraine O’Brien to smooth out the soil before the flowers were planted. O’Brien heads up theCrossroads’ garden club and was happy to help.
O’Brien said she was happy and grateful that the Girl Scouts donated their time to plant the annual and perennial flowers that residents will enjoy all year.
"Every time we look at the flowers in this garden we’ll think about the girls," O’Brien said as she smiled at the five girls who were working diligently in the courtyard on a sunny afternoon to make life a bit sweeter and more vivid for Crossroads’ residents.