Girl Scout Designs Community Garden to Attract Native Pollinators & Birds
Kaelee Wolf from Bettendorf, Iowa, has achieved the Gold Award, the highest award a Girl Scout can earn, for designing a garden with ten different types of native wildflowers and grasses that attract native pollinators and birds in her community.
“Most people in my community who have a lot of lawn space or other non-native plantings don’t know the negative impact,” says Kaelee. “Well-meaning people will plant a tree that does nothing to participate in native ecology to have free reign over their lawns. Most people don’t know what it takes to truly create biodiversity.”
The Gold Award Girl Scout is passionate about educating her community about how common plants and lawn care in our region negatively impact the environment. In addition to planting the garden, she created a series of videos, a website, and an educational sign to share her knowledge about native species.
“What many Midwesterners fail to realize is these ‘insect free’ plants are just that. Foreign plants are insect-free due to their foreign origin, and thus unusable to any native Midwestern insects,” Kaelee explains. “This lack of native species has plunged the Midwest into a biodiversity crisis that continues all the way up the food chain. With no plants to eat, there are less insects, and thus less birds, small mammals, and, at the very top, less predators.”
Community members and students now have a space to celebrate the native plant species of Iowa and learn how to bring biodiversity back to their own gardens.
“I have an amazing community of people around me with the capabilities to solve any problems that come our way.”
Gold Award Girl Scouts become innovative problem-solvers, empathetic leaders, confident public speakers, and focused project managers. They learn resourcefulness, tenacity, and decision-making skills, giving them an edge personally and professionally. As they take action to transform their communities, Gold Award Girl Scouts gain tangible skills and prove they’re the leaders our world needs.
According to recent research, Gold Award Girl Scouts are more likely to fill leadership roles at work and in their personal lives and are more civically engaged than their non-Girl Scout peers. Eighty-seven percent (87%) of Gold Award Girl Scouts agree that earning their Gold Award gave them skills that help them succeed professionally. Seventy-two percent (72%) said earning their Gold Award helped them get a scholarship. Changing the world doesn’t end when a Girl Scout earns her Gold Award. Ninety-nine percent (99%) of Gold Award Girl Scout alums take on leadership roles in their everyday lives.
