{"id":42169,"date":"2023-01-26T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-26T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thelandmark.com\/?p=42169"},"modified":"2023-01-26T06:00:00","modified_gmt":"2023-01-26T11:00:00","slug":"shelter-benefits-from-bronze-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/2023\/01\/26\/shelter-benefits-from-bronze-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Animal shelter benefits from Girl Scouts’ Bronze Award project"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Danielle Ray Landmark Correspondent<\/i><\/div>\n

STERLING \u2014 A Girl Scout troop in town was moved to take care of the furry residents at the Sterling Animal Shelter for the Bronze Award project they wrapped up in the fall.<\/p>\n

Thegroupofll-andl2-yearold girls, all in sixth grade, live in Sterling, Princeton and Leominster. Sophia Contreras, Arden Crowley, Luciana Fournier, Ava Knipe, Kylie McKean, Emma Morris, Abigail Patterson, Catherine Petronino, Alexa Polewarczyk, Madelyn Potenza and Lillian Songer decided as a group to make dog toys and dog biscuits,<\/p>\n

and dropped them off to the shelter on Sept. 23.<\/p>\n

To earn a Bronze Award, they had to do a troopwide project to improve their community. They each put in 20 hours for the effort, which included time to decide on the project, research all related aspects of it, and complete it.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe brainstormed several ideas, but the girls all shared a love for animals,\u201d said co-troop leader Mandy Roberts-Crowley.<\/p>\n

They dubbed the project Animal Shelter Dog Adoption Kits, and each girl did individual online research for types of dog toys, dog toy materials, and biscuit recipes.<\/p>\n

Dog toys \u201cThey learned that fleece was a good material because it doesn\u2019t unravel like cotton, and that the square knot created a tighter tug toy than a typical plait one would make with three strands,\u201d Roberts-Crowley said of their findings.<\/p>\n

Donated fleece was cut into 2-inch-long strips, and they calculated they had enough material for each girl to make six dog toys. They learned how to tie a square knot and were responsible for making the toys in their spare time at home.<\/p>\n

Dog treats<\/p>\n

\u2022 3 cups all-purpose flour<\/p>\n

\u2022 1 cup powdered dry milk<\/p>\n

\u2022 1 cup rye flour See \u2022 1 package dry yeast<\/p>\n

\u2022 1 cup cornmeal<\/p>\n

\u2022 2 cups chicken or beef stock<\/p>\n

\u2022 2 cups wheat germ<\/p>\n

\u2022 1 beaten egg Combine all dry ingredients. Add stock gradually and mix. Shape into balls and roll onto a floured board. Cut cookies using a cookie cutter. Brush tops with egg. Bake at 300 degrees for 40 to 45 minutes.<\/p>\n

The next phase of the project brought the troop to the large kitchen at First Church in Sterling to make three batches of dog treats. Each girl rotated through different stations and worked with different partners measuring ingredients, mixing the batter, rolling out the dough, cutting the biscuits, putting them on sheet pans, baking them in the oven and packaging them.<\/p>\n

The last step was delivering the goods to the shelter, which Roberts-Crowley said was \u201cvery gracious and accommodating to work with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe girls loved visiting the dogs awaiting adoption, and it was really hard to go home without one,\u201d she admitted.<\/p>\n

She and Laura Petronino each have a daughter in the troop; they have been co-leaders for six years and with most of the girls since they were Daisies in Kindergarten.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve loved seeing their confidence in making decisions grow over the years,\u201d Mandy-Roberts said when asked what she enjoys about being a troop leader. \u201cThey all have a passion to give back to their community and are looking forward to being more involved now that the fear of COVID has eased.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said the troop would gladly accept fleece donations to continue to make toys for the shelter, a project near and dear to all of their hearts.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are in a tough economy right now, and many people don\u2019t have as much money due to COVID. The prices of everyday items are rising, and some families have had to give up pets they can no longer care for,\u201d Mandy-Roberts said of the inspiration behind the Bronze Award project focus. \u201cShelters are seeing less monetary donations, and the cost of supplies is increasing. Part of the Girl Scout Law is to \u2018Use Resources Wisely.\u2019 We used discarded fleece fabric from Project Linus, a community event held years ago, and also received fleece donations from Patty Blakeney and Kate Blehar, friends in the community.\u201d<\/p>\n

When all was said and done, the girls made 66 toys to donate and more than 200 dog biscuits.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only challenge was the time,\u201d Roberts-Crowley said. \u201cSince the Bronze Award is earned at the Junior level, they needed to complete their project by the end of September. They worked hard over the summer to get those toys and biscuits made.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

STERLING \u2014 A Girl Scout troop in town was moved to take care of the furry residents at the Sterling Animal Shelter for the Bronze Award project they wrapped up in the fall. Thegroupofll-andl2-yearold girls, all in sixth grade, live in Sterling, Princeton and Leominster.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":42172,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_gspb_post_css":"","_sitemap_exclude":false,"_sitemap_priority":"","_sitemap_frequency":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-42169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lifestyle"],"blocksy_meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/devcherryroad.com\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}