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Troop 61010 Visits RAFT

September 30 – Girl Scouts troop #61010 returned to Resource Area for Teaching(RAFT) to plant a drought-friendly butterfly garden. The garden will be displayed in front of the organization’s office entrance in San Jose, California. The Girl Scout Organization promotes community service at all age levels so girls can learn more about issues that have captured their interest and hearts. Troop 61010 is working on bettering their community and is led by one of their leader of three years, Thanh-Van Tran.

“These girls work really hard to share themselves with the community. They were inspired by the current drought we’re in. They wanted to do something to address the issue, while also giving a gift to RAFT,” says Tran.

Tran’s troop works on projects that involve recycled, upcycled, and donated materials. For their first plastic bottle gardening system (displayed in RAFT’s retail window), the girls created an intricate water-saving hydration system for plants, using only plastic bottles and string.

The newly planted, drought conscious butterfly garden features Agastache, Lantana, and Milkweed which are plants that require little watering, while attracting beautiful insects such as butterflies and dragonflies.

“It’s been really fun to work on projects that help out our community, I love being outside working with nature and using recycled tools or products that people don’t use anymore.” says Catherine Chau who has been a Girl Scout for three years.

Upcycling delivers an abundance of affordable hands-on learning materials and supplies for educators and their students while also diverting roughly 400 cubic feet of materials from landfills each and every day. RAFT has been able to providing affordable hands-on education tools that engage students and increase their learning comprehension by upcycling donated materials from local businesses that would otherwise end up in landfills.

“We’re very happy that these kids are taking on our community problems headfirst. They’re not only thinking about what to fix, but they’re also thinking up innovative ways to solve the issues. And RAFT’s main focus is to encourage this type of innovative thinking,” says Grainger Marburg, RAFT CEO.

About RAFT
RAFT believes the best way to spark the love of learning for the next generation of thinkers, innovators, problem-solvers, and creators, is through hands-on learning. A nonprofit organization since 1994, RAFT serves 12,000 educators each year who teach over 900,000 students. Find out more about RAFT and how to get involved at http://www.raft.729solutions.com.