By Amy Batista, Special Writer
EAST WINDSOR — Etra Lake Park will have permanent mileage markers to aid walkers and runners, thanks to the ingenuity of a local Girl Scout.
Girl Scout Cadette Katie Bertrand of Girl Scout Troop 70973 presented her Silver Award proposal at the May 3 council meeting.
Katie’s proposal is to install permanent markers so that individuals using the park need not rely on guesswork or fitness apps to determine the number of miles they have traveled. She will display the plaques, which she will affix to the markers indicating the distance, according to the press release.
“My project is to put up distance markers in Etra Park to help the people who exercise there,” Katie wrote in an email on May 12. “The project is to allow people who exercise at Etra Park to know how far they are running or walking without having to buy expensive equipment.”
She said that she came up with the project after a meeting with Mayor Janice Mironov.
“Mayor Mironov suggested I work to clean up the area around exercise equipment at Etra,” she said. “As I was walking around Etra, I noticed I did not know how far I had gone, which brought up the idea of the distance markers.”
Since Girl Scouting requires the Silver Award project to bring something new to the community. Katie and her troop leaders decided that the distance markers should be the main focus of the project.
The Silver Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette, who are in sixth through eighth grade, can earn and the second highest award a Girl Scout can earn. Girls must pick a Take Action project — something that must help their community and be sustainable, write a detailed proposal, have that proposal approved by the Girl Scout Council of Central/Southern New Jersey, and then spend at least 50 hours working towards completing this project, according to the press release.
Katie, who has been a Girl Scout for nine years, said, “I wanted to be a Girl Scout because my older sister, Megan, who is a Girl Scout, was one and I wanted to try it out.”
Etra Lake Park often serves as a venue for middle and high school running events, for which temporary distance markers are spray painted on the grass. These markers fade with time and/or are erased when the grass is mowed, according to the release.
“The project name is, ‘Are we There Yet,’ ” because that is a phrase that runners often say when they are tired and are close to the finish line,” Katie said.
Katie estimated that the total cost to purchase and install the markers will be about $130 depending on the final specifications, and she will raise the funds to cover the purchase of materials and installation. She anticipates completing the project in late summer, according to the release.
“I plan to raise the money by scheduling a fun summer event,” Katie said, such as a walk or Girl Scout field day, depending on the cost of the distance plaques.
“I plan on working on the project in the last few weeks of May and summer,” she said.
Mayor Mironov and council members unanimously voted to endorse Katie Bertrand’s Silver Award project, the release said.
