By Dan Solovitz

Greta Engelstad from Troop 53772 received a Girl Scout Gold Award at the Cottage Grove City Council meeting on Sept. 7. The Gold Award is the highest award offered by the Girl Scouts, for implementing notably creative solutions to benefit her community.

“My Gold Award project focused on pollinators in a couple of different settings. I did a kid’s club in the summer daycare program, did some skits and some songs,” Engelstad said. “Everybody thinks about bees when we think of pollinators, but we also talked about the other pollinators that we’ve got, and our native bees and why they’re important. Some of them live in beehives, but also, it’s important to leave your gardens untouched in the spring so that way our pollinators have places to live there and underground. Other insects, butterflies and bats. Beyond education, I also worked with Basic Needs, Inc. and their new community garden in Newport. We made raised garden beds that were accessible so that people in wheelchairs and walkers were able to access them and partake in that community garden.”

Mayor Myron Bailey said, “What makes us so proud is the fact that this really shows true leadership in the community. It took a lot to get to the level that you did.”