A year of work and planning by Junior Girl Scout Troop 71853 earned the girls a Bronze Award
By John Tredrea, Staff Writer
A bridge — built by Pennington Girl Scouts with the help of a pair of oxen provided by Howell Living History Farm in Hopewell Township — has become part of the Pennington Loop Trail.
The bridge, built near Kunkel Park in Pennington, took nearly a year of work and planning by Junior Girl Scout Troop 71853 for the troop’s Bronze Award project, which is the highest award a Junior Girl Scout can earn. It demonstrates the Junior Girl Scout made a promise to help others, improve her community and world and become the best she can be.
”We chose the bridge project on the Pennington Loop Trail for a few reasons,” said Karen Nyby, troop co-leader. “The first reason was that the D&R Greenway told us the community really needed a bridge on the orange section of the trail. The second reason was that this project was not something the girls would usually choose. The third reason was that it sounded like lots of fun.”
The support from the D&R Greenway, Howell Living History Farm, Heath Lumber Company, the Hopewell Valley Lions Club, Pennington Borough, borough Councilman Tom Ogren and the girls’ parents helped the project succeed, said Xenia Morin, troop co-leader.
Heath Lumber donated $500 worth of materials, and the Lions donated $200 to cover some additional materials, and a plaque for the bridge.
”We wanted to make a lasting contribution to our community, encourage our community to make greater use of the Pennington Loop Trail and to make our walkway and bridge a ‘green’ addition to the Pennington Loop Trail,” Ms. Morin said.
Starting in January, the fifth-graders started the project by learning about architecture, tool safety, sustainability and ecology. The girls are Delaney Clevett, Linnea Compton, Courtney Mahn, Kimberly McDonough, Hannah Morin, Emily Nyby, Maguire Qvale, Katherine Royer and Emily Witmer, all of Pennington, and Hopewell Township residents Marine Lagrave and Christina Nagley,
The Scouts earned their Ms. Fix It Badge when they spent a Saturday afternoon learning to do basic household repairs such as fixing a faucet and, with the help and supervision of adults, how to safely use tools such as drills, hammers and wrenches. With the help of parents Paul Nyby and Paul Morin and local carpenter Mike Hart, the girls built the elevated walkway for the trail.
The project posed many challenges for the Scouts to overcome.
The length of the bridge, 14 feet, required custom lumber. Another problem arose when the troop’s first choice of lumber, black locust wood, was accidentally mulched.
Seeking another sustainable lumber source while also keeping the project on schedule and on budget, Health Lumber came to the troop’s rescue. Gary Patricelli of Health Lumber donated $500 worth of replacement lumber. The materials used in the bridge were treks, pressure-treated southern yellow pine.
The next hurdle was how to move 1,500 pounds of lumber through Kunkel Park and along a half-mile portion of the trail that included crossing Lewis Brook.
Howell Living History Farm provided the solution — a pair of good-natured oxen, Chris and Jake. Guided by the farm’s Pete Watson, Rob Flory and Matt Shoenfeld, the oxen ably pulled the wood to the bridge site.
In addition to the planning, design and construction of the bridge, the Scouts satisfied an array of requirements over the school year for the Bronze Award that reflects the Scout values, such as serving others, taking action to make the world a better place, be leaders in the community and mentor younger Girl Scouts.
For community service, the Scouts baked corn bread for the Trenton Area Soup Kitchen TASK, made holiday ornaments for Womanspace and built pinecone bird feeders for the Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association.
To provide comfort and make the world a little brighter for pediatric cancer patients, the Scouts made colorful pillowcases for ConKerr Cancer.
To develop leadership skills, the Scouts taught a younger junior troop about winter outdoor skills and safety. The girls also organized and led Daisy and Brownie troops in a sing-along event.
”Our Bronze Award Project has helped our girls to learn the value of working with community partners, that we can do things that some say are not ‘girl’ activities and end up with a completed project,” Mrs. Nyby said.
Mrs. Morin added, “We can think ‘green’ and use ‘green’ materials and still have a strong, attractive bridge that will last a long time. And these girls demonstrated that even fifth-graders can make a big contribution to our community.”