Brownie Troop Helps to Educate Their Neighbors

Members of Brownie Girl Scout Troop 076 are working on their Water Drop Patch.  The Water Drop Patch, which was developed by the Environmental Protection Agency and the Girl Scout Council of the Nation's Capital (GSNC), is four-tiered.  It encourages girls to make a difference in their communities by becoming watershed and wetlands stewards; using their skills and their knowledge to educate others in their communities about the need to protect the nation's valuable water resources; Explore the natural world to gain an interest in science and math; and to use the internet as a source of information.

As part of the work for their water drop patch, Scout Leader, Michelle Reeder, invited Roseann L'Esperance, Community Educator of the Stormwater Division, to visit with the troop to help them understand about the kinds of things that can impact local water quality.  After watching stormwater runoff pollution happen on the Enviroscape, they were ready to do some work.

The following week, after a few brief instructions, 13 Brownies started marking storm drains.  The markers, which state: No Dumping, Drains to the Creek, and Report Polluters, is a powerful education tool to put in neighborhoods, and one of the actions suggested for the Water Drop patch.  By the end of the afternoon, the girls had marked 84 storm drains in the Sherwood Forest area of Winston-Salem, a job well done!