Tag Archives: New Castle

Archive

New Castle Girl Scouts Earn Bronze Award

Submitted by Karen Campbell

Western Colorado

New Castle

It was an exciting time at Alder Park in New Castle on Sunday, April 11, 2021! Gracie, Sylvia, and Abby, three Girl Scout Juniors from Troop 10239,  officially completed the final installation of their Bronze Award project. Many family and community members came to help, including Ron Acee from Trout Unlimited; Tom Skutley and Sheldon Doonan from RFV Flyfishing Club; and Dave Reynolds from the Town of New Castle. The girls worked thru 2020 COVID challenges and winter weather delays. They finished strong with this important environmental project. Job well done, everyone!

If you are in the neighborhood, stop by Alder Park to read these valuable interpretive ecology signs, each written by Bronze Award Girl Scouts. If you are fishing at Alder Pond, please be sure to check out the new Fishing Line Recycle Bins. Recycle bins will be managed thru a partnership with the Town of New Castle and the Girl Scouts. Last, be on the look out for more fishing line recycling opportunities around the valley. With the help of local fishing club chapters, these girls donated three additional bins to the Middle Colorado Watershed Council and look forward to expanding the program. Special thanks to our community volunteers for bringing enthusiastic support, power tools, and great digging skills! Thanks also to Aspen Rent-All for the donation of a valuable generator for the day! We are thrilled to live in a place where our neighbors, businesses. and our city manager care enough to join a few motivated girls to get amazing things done!

We want to hear how your girl is using her Girl Scout skills by taking initiative, caring for the community, and Girl Scouting at home. She can send in her story here.

 

Uncategorized

New Castle Girl Scouts Earn Bronze Award

Submitted by Cindy Adams

Western Colorado

New Castle

Troop 10239 in New Castle, Colorado has three girls, Abby, Gracie, and Sylvia, who earned their Bronze Award in 2021. The Bronze Award is the highest award the girls can earn as a Junior. Girl Scout Juniors need to complete a Junior Journey, build a Bronze Award team, explore their community, choose a theme, and design and complete a community Take Action project.  The first step to earning a Bronze Award is completing a Girl Scout JuniorJourney and Take Action project.

Last summer and fall, the Girl Scouts earned their Outdoor Journey and started their Take Action project.  On the Journey, the girls held a clean-up activity at Alder Park, created animal habitats, hiked New Castle local trails, planned a camping trip, and created maps of Alder Park and waterways. The girls decided their Journey Take Action project will be a fishing line recycling program at Alder Park Pond.  This project was born from picking up trash at Alder Park and the girls picked up a lot of old fishing line. Fishing line is a frequent source of litter in ponds and rivers, and can cause injury and death to birds, fish, turtles, and many mammals. Monofilament fishing line takes 600 years to decompose (that’s 150 years longer than a disposable diaper!), but IT IS RECYCLABLE! Berkley Fishing provides free shipping boxes to mail in used fishing line to be recycled.

The girls built two fishing line recycling bins and will install them at Alder Park.  They also received three additional bins from the Roaring Fork Valley Fly Fishing Club, which will be donated to other community groups to install and manage as part of the program.

The girls were set to install their Take Action Project in November 2020, unfortunately COVID-19 regulations stopped them in their tracks, as girls from no more than two households could meet. The girls did not lose faith in their project, they just postponed the installation of their Take Action Project until April 11, 2021 now that COVID-19 regulations have allowed for groups to meet. The troop also has a COVID-19 plan in place with the Garfield County Health to meet in person.

Abby, Gracie, and Sylvia’s Take Action Project involved researching, talking with community members including Trout Unlimited and Roaring Fork Fly Fishing Club, presenting to the New Castle town council, building monofilament recycling bins, and installing them. The girls started their project in October 2020.  The girls received a donation from the Town of New Castle to help offset the cost of the fishing line recycling bins, as well as a donation from Trout Unlimited.

Since finishing the planning and construction of their Take Action project, the girls started to brainstorm ideas for their Bronze Award project. They had come to know Alder Park Pond, a neighborhood hangout, and decided that they wanted to build permanent educational signs for the community about the importance of the animal species, the wetlands, and the human impact on Alder Pond.  The girls said if people know and love a place, they will care for it! Sylvia, Gracie, and Abby presented to the Town Council their idea for both their Take Action project and Bronze Award project in October 2020 and both were approved.

Over the winter, the girls designed and produced three educational signs about Alder Park Pond by the end of February 2021. The girls plan to install both the signs and fishing line recycling bins on April 11.  These girls have learned so much about community involvement, planning, how a project that people get excited about can expand rapidly, and about perseverance.

Cooperating Agencies for the project included: Roaring Fork Valley Fly Fishing Club, Trout Unlimited, Colorado Parks and Wildlife, Roaring Fork Conservancy, Town of New Castle, Berkley Fishing and BoatUS.org.

We want to hear how your girl is using her Girl Scout skills by taking initiative, caring for the community, and Girl Scouting at home. She can send in her story here.

Archive

Four Girl Scouts from Eagle and Garfield Counties awarded camperships

Update as of April 23, 2020: The family of Mary Jo Jacobs and the Mary Jo Jacobs, MD Memorial Girl Scout Adventure Fund ensures that all four girls can use their campership awards for summer camp in 2021.  Girls in Eagle and Garfield Counties are encouraged to apply in winter 2021 for next summer’s adventures.

The Mary Jo Jacobs, M.D. Memorial Girl Scout Adventure Fund provides Girl Scouts from Eagle and Garfield counties in Colorado with a scholarship so they can experience the learning opportunities, joy, and camaraderie of attending Girl Scout Camp. “Our hope is that that many girls will have the same positive experience, education and adventure that mom had through her involvement in Girl Scouting and her opportunity to attend Girl Scout camp,” said Dr. Patricia VanDevander, daughter of Dr. Mary Jo Jacobs.

Four Girl Scouts will attend Girl Scouts of Colorado’s resident camp in summer 2020 courtesy of funds from the Mary Jo Jacobs, M.D. Memorial Girl Scout Adventure Fund.

  • Fourth-grade Girl Scout Junior Sylvia D. of New Castle will attend Girl vs. Wild at Sky High Ranch.  She’s attending camp for the first time, thanks to confidence gained in the Girl Scout Cookie Program and  a trip with her troop top sellers!  She writes that, “Mary Jo Jacobs’ story was inspiring because she aspired to be good and to do better.  Imagine if we all aspired to that level.  The world would be a better place.”
  • Third-grade Brownie Juniper K. of Eagle will attend Ranch Camp at Tomahawk Ranch. She’s super-excited to attend camp for the first time and even more excited to be able to share the experience with a friend! Juniper considers herself helpful and friendly and says,  “I love Girl Scouts because I love going on adventures, having fun and being with friends.”
  • Girl Scout Lela W. of Basalt will attend resident camp for the very first time this summer.  She’s registered for Life-Sized Game Boards at Sky High Ranch and Enchancia at Tomahawk Ranch.  She says “being a Girl Scout is about more than just getting together with friends and having a good time. It’s about working hard, helping people, and making the world a better place.”  She smashed her own goal this year to earn cookie credits to support her camp experiences.
  • Girl Scout Junior Isabella P. will attend Adventure Olympics at Sky High Ranch.  The current fifth grader says that “being a Girl Scout means she can do fun things, make new friends, and learn life lessons in the process.”  Isabella was originally awarded a campership in summer 2019, but was unable to go. She’s thankful for the opportunity this summer and would encourage any young girl to join Girl Scouts “ because it is so fun, and you can help your community!”

Mary Jo’s four children established the scholarship in December 2014 to honor their mother’s extraordinary legacy. As an 8-year-old girl growing up in 1937, Mary Jo wanted a new pair of roller skates. She wanted them more than anything in world— until she learned her Brownie troop was going to be able to go to summer camp. Mary Jo had to make a choice: spend the $8 she had worked so hard to earn on roller skates or Girl Scout camp? For Mary Jo, the decision was simple. She was going to Girl Scout camp. Mary Jo’s mother walked her to the local Girl Scout office, so she could be the first to register. A reporter for the Artesia Daily Press in New Mexico even wrote a story about Mary Jo and her decision. After returning home from camp, Mary Jo continued to participate in Girl Scout activities, including going to camp. Eventually, she became a doctor and worked tirelessly to serve the people of Eagle and Garfield Counties, Colorado.

Archive

Girl Scouts awarded Mary Jo Jacobs, M.D. Memorial Girl Scout Adventure Fund

Kayla Kaufman Samantha Williams

Two more Girl Scouts in the Mountain Communities region are headed to Girl Scouts of Colorado summer camp after receiving the Mary Jo Jacobs, M.D. Memorial Girl Scout Adventure Fund. Samantha of Glenwood Springs will attend Sky High Animal Adventures at Sky High Ranch in June. Kayla of New Castle will go to Tomahawk TriWizard at Tomahawk Ranch in July.

“I am so excited to go to the TriWizard Camp this summer. I can’t wait to have fun with friends, learn new things, and learn to be more independent,” Kayla wrote.

“I am so excited to go to camp and learn as much as I can about the animals! I’ve never spent that much time away, and it will be so fun to meet new friends,” Samantha wrote.

Mary Jo’s four children established the scholarship in December 2014 to honor their mother’s extraordinary legacy. As an 8-year-old girl growing up in 1937, Mary Jo wanted a new pair of roller skates. She wanted them more than anything in world— until she learned her Brownie troop was going to be able to go to summer camp. Mary Jo had to make a choice: spend the $8 she had worked so hard to earn on roller skates or Girl Scout camp? For Mary Jo, the decision was simple. She was going to Girl Scout camp. Mary Jo’s mother walked her to the local Girl Scout office, so she could be the first to register. A reporter for the Artesia Daily Press in New Mexico even wrote a story about Mary Jo and her decision.

After returning home from camp, Mary Jo continued to participate in Girl Scout activities, including going to camp. Eventually, she became a doctor and worked tirelessly to serve the people of Eagle and Garfield Counties, Colorado.

The Mary Jo Jacobs, M.D. Memorial Girl Scout Adventure Fund provides Girl Scouts from Eagle and Garfield counties in Colorado with a scholarship so they can experience the learning opportunities, joy, and camaraderie of attending Girl Scout Camp. “Our hope is that that many girls will have the same positive experience, education and adventure that mom had through her involvement in Girl Scouting and her opportunity to attend Girl Scout camp,” said Dr. Patricia VanDevander, daughter of Dr. Mary Jo Jacobs.

Registration for Girl Scout Camp is now underway on the Girl Scouts of Colorado website at girlscoutsofcolorado.org. For summer 2017, girls can attend overnight camp sessions at Sky High Ranch near Manitou Lake and Woodland Park or perennial favorite Tomahawk Ranch near Bailey, southwest of Denver. Activities include archery, backpacking, photography, and rock climbing. Overnight camp runs from 3 to 12 days for girls ages 6 and up.  Girl Scouts of Colorado will continue to offer day camping adventures throughout the state. The summer camp schedule is live on the Girl Scouts of Colorado website (girlscoutsofcolorado.org). Girl Scout summer camp programs are open to all girls throughout Colorado, whether they’re in a troop or not, and new campers get a 10-percent discount.

Girl Scouts has been helping girls shine for more than 100 years. Girl Scouts of Colorado is proud to serve more than 22,000 girls across the state with the help and support of 10,000 adult members! Learn more how you can be part of the Girl Scout Leadership Experience by visiting girlscoutsofcolorado.org, calling 1-877-404-5708, or emailing inquiry@gscolorado.org.