Arielle Lyons
For Girl Scouts USA
Gardening, Growing and Giving! That’s what a Montgomery Area group of Girl Scouts is doing to bring joy and beauty to seniors on National Senior Citizens Day, August 21st.
Nine-year-old Ruby Berkowitz has been practicing sustainable techniques in her home flower farm and is teaching her fellow Girl Scouts of Troop 9795 to do the same. This week, they’re harvesting the blooms and bundling bouquets with handmade cards to take to Angels for the Elderly, a senior living community in Montgomery, Ala.
They’ll be harvesting and delivering flowers Sunday, August 21st at 2 p.m. Girl Scouts will deliver the bouquets to Angels for the Elderly, visiting three buildings where 38 residents reside.
Environmental stewardship and community impact are fundamental to the Girl Scout experience, and Ruby’s using her passions and friendships she makes through her troop to teach and encourage others about conservation, “If we didn’t have a clean environment then we wouldn’t have as many animals, and if we didn’t have as many animals then we couldn’t provide food or couldn’t pollinate flowers. It’s important for kids to make a cleaner environment so we can have a cleaner future.”
More About Ruby and Girl Scout Troop 9795
Troop 9795, part of the Southern Alabama Council, has 10 members residing in the Montgomery area.
Ruby is a third-generation gardener. Her grandmother is a Master Gardener through the extension office of Auburn University.
Her mom grows and supplies flowers to the Pike Road community, including a locally made/grown shop and charity events.
Ruby and her Girl Scout troop create fun and adventure defined by them: “I thought Girl Scouts was gonna be a lot of hard work. But I was wrong! We get to do a lot of fun adventuring and rafting and camping…Animals, horseback riding, planting, gardening, flowers,” explains Ruby.
Grounded in the Girl Scout Law to “use resources wisely,” Ruby and her troop implement sustainable gardening techniques to reduce water waste, use less energy and avoid chemicals.
Ruby’s Girl Scout Troop plans to establish a community garden in Pike Road to practice sustainable gardening on a bigger scale and secure their Take Action Badge.
Through the 16 badges her troop chose to earn last year, Girl Scouts encourages them to be curious and resourceful, like gathering worms and composting for healthy soil.
In addition to using kitchen scraps, Ruby brings home friends’ lunch scraps from school for the farm’s worm bin for composting.
Currently, the troop is working to complete:
Girl Scouts Love the Outdoors Challenge: an annual challenge where girls of all ages are inspired and encouraged to connect with the outdoors. More than 46,000 Girl Scouts participated in the Outdoor Challenge last year.
The Girl Scouts Climate Challenge: invites both Girl Scouts and non-Girl Scouts to learn about climate science, connect with their communities, and share hope to create change. It runs now through Nov. 30, 2022.
About Girl Scouts
Girl Scouts bring their dreams to life and work together to build a better world. Through programs from coast to coast, Girl Scouts of all backgrounds and abilities can be unapologetically themselves as they discover their strengths and rise to meet new challenges—whether they want to climb to the top of a tree or the top of their class, lace up their boots for a hike or advocate for climate justice, or make their first best friends. Backed by trusted adult volunteers, mentors, and millions of alums, Girl Scouts lead the way as they find their voices and make changes that affect the issues most important to them. girlscouts.org
