LETTER: Girl Scouts plant, dedicate a tree to those lost in pandemic

May 28, 2021  |  By Heather Friedman

Local Girl Scouts and their leaders at the recent planting of a Profusion Crabapple tree near the Waterbury municipal offices. The variety grows to 15 to 20 feet in height and flowers in springtime. Back row, left to right: Leaders Darlene Olsen, Jessica Chenette, Heather Friedman. Front, left to right: Eleanor Friedman, Bella Gormley, Ariana Chenette, Lila Friedman, Makinely Foran, & Madi Maylin. (Not pictured: Rose and Bridget Williams) Courtesy photo.

To the community:

This week, the local Waterbury Girl Scout Troop 30228 planted a remembrance tree at the Waterbury town offices to honor the Vermonters who lost their lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is part of a tree-promise project that the national organization initiated for local troops across the nation to plant 5 million trees in five years.

The troop has done numerous other things this year for the community. We've donated food and money to the Waterbury Food Shelf as well as Pawsitive Pantry in Waitsfield. In January, we tie-dyed over 50 face masks and donated them to the Lamoille Health and Hospice in Morrisville. In April, we collected over 25 pounds of pop tops for Burlington's Ronald McDonald House Pop Tab program. 

At the beginning of 2020, the troop numbered 17 girls, but now we are down to eight girls. We usually meet at Thatcher Brook Primary School, however since we could not meet in person, we met monthly via Zoom. Some meetings had guest speakers including representatives from NASA, the Burlington Police Department, Vermont Fish and Wildlife, and Mount Mansfield Dentistry, among others. 

A memorial plaque dedicates the new tree planted by Girl Scout Troop 30228 near the Waterbury municipal offices. Courtesy photo.

To facilitate hands-on activities, the troop leaders ensured that the girls had the necessary supplies by dropping them off directly to their houses in order to complete projects to earn their badges. Luckily, for this tree project, we were all finally able to meet in person again. 

We are coming up on our last meeting of the school year and will participate in the Not Quite Independence Day parade on July 10. We also are hoping for a visit to a waterpark. 

We would like to thank the community for its support during our cookie season. It was tough to sell cookies in a pandemic, but we did it. We sold 2,396 boxes, which beat our 2021 cookie goal. 

Thank you Waterbury and surrounding areas for the support! We look forward to what the future holds for the troop!   

Heather Friedman, co-leader

Girl Scout Troop #30228