On a sunny Friday afternoon in May, 10 girls and two leaders from Junior Troop 41171 of the Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana Girl Scouts worked on their Bronze Award project at OHU’s Des Plaines Child Development Center campus.

The Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest honor a Girl Scout Junior can achieve and the third highest honor that can be earned as a Girl Scout.  The Bronze Award encourages girls to make a lasting impact on their community.

The scouts were asked to come up with various ideas for a community service project for their Bronze Award.  They were also presented with a couple of options by their leaders.  Several of the girls had an interest in gardening and decided that working on the educational gardens at One Hope United fit their interests best.

They spent several hours researching various options, voting on which they thought would work out best and how much would fit in the area assigned to the project.   The girls spent 5 hours weeding and preparing two gardens and a series of planter boxes.  They planted perennial plants as well as vegetables and herbs.

As the afternoon progressed the children at OHU came outside and had the opportunity to observe or help the Girl Scouts if they were interested.  Many children chose to help. In the end, the Greater Chicago and Northwest Indiana Girl Scouts said, “They really enjoyed working with the students at the school as they came out to help and watch the girls work.”