By Dawn Hensil
Staff Writer
The members of Shinnston Girls Scout Troop 31558 recently came up with their own service idea: preparing bags of pet supplies for people who adopt from the Harrison County Humane Society.
The girls put together 25 bags for cat adoptions and 25 for dog adoptions.
“We wanted to offer a sample pack of items,” said Troop Leader Lynn Williams Vance. “Each bag was filled with items such as small bags of pet food, cat or dog treats, a toy for the new pet, as well as a collar.”
The girls wanted to give people who were adopting a pet the goody bag to take home with them that day.
The troop had originally planned to deliver these items on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, but with the poor weather conditions, organizers rescheduled for Jan. 18. The older girls in the club made the venture to the Humane Society to drop off the goody bags.
While there, the girls noticed that the facility was short-staffed, so they graciously offered to bathe one of the dogs. Vance stated that she believed that it may have been the first time the dog had ever had a bath.
The girls also spent a couple of hours that day playing and interacting with the animals. Humane Society workers said they were welcome to return anytime because the shelter is always in need of help.
“Since I have older girls, they don’t like doing patchwork and prefer the more hands-on projects,” Vance said. “So we have been doing a bunch of community service projects.”
With money earned from cookie sales, they adopted Angels from Lincoln High School through their Angel Luv program for Shinnston and Lumberport schoolchildren, and they adopted residents at a nursing home and bought items for them as well.
Vance said that this will be the last year for the troop, so they are trying to use the money that they have earned to give back to the community as much as possible. Her daughter Raelyn Vance is graduating from Girl Scouts, and she has been working on her Gold Award for the past two past years.
Gold Awards are presented to high-school students in Girl Scouts who research and conduct long-term projects. The Gold Award is a “Take Action project that must include five elements: a root cause of an issue that you feel passionate about that has a national or global link. Through your actions, you must demonstrate leadership while also creating a sustainable and measurable impact,” the Girl Scouts website states. Due to the pandemic though, her progress has been slowed, her mother said.
This story has been corrected. The service event took place Jan. 18. A description of a previous service event the Girl Scouts participated in has also been corrected.
