Bronze Award: Wild Animals Try Hard to Survive

Summer and Hazel, two Juniors in multi-level Troop 65659, noticed a lot of animals in their neighborhood and knew that they were trying hard to survive. They wanted to know what they could do to make sure they had their best chance.

The Girl Scouts interviewed a ranger at Barr Lake Nature Center and two wildlife rehabilitation centers. They learned that there are ways people can help keep both themselves and animals safe when wild animals get too close to human homes.

To draw attention to what they learned, Summer, Hazel and their helping team crafted 19 squirrel and bird puppets, and then decorated and stuffed a felt raccoon pillow for a total of 20 animals made. They recorded ideas from the interviews into a puppet show, teaching viewers how to humanely evict wild animals from their property while keeping animals and humans safe.

Summer and Hazel created several signs to display their project that included a QR code to watch the puppet show. Their recorded voices from the puppet show were recorded on two audio devices with buttons for playback which were inserted into the raccoon pillow.

The Girl Scouts took their signs, puppets, and raccoon pillow to Barr Lake Nature Center and installed their box of puppets with a sign that explained that if visitors watch the puppet show, they can take a free puppet. The raccoon was placed in an alcove at the nature center with other plushies so that even after the puppets are gone, visitors can scan the QR code on the raccoon and push its buttons to get wildlife management information.

Summer and Hazel love visiting the Barr Lake Nature Center, so they were very happy to give back by adding another fun activity for families to enjoy there.