Troop 108 earns Bronze Award helping animals

Intermountain Catholic

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Girl Scout Troop 108 from Bountiful meet at Saint Olaf Church or Saint Olaf School, where some of the girls attend school. They earned a Bronze Award working with animals.IC photo by Christine Young

BOUNTIFUL — Girl Scout Troop 108 from Bountiful who meet at Saint Olaf School earned their Bronze Award by doing a community project and donating their time and talents to animals. They put in service hours at the Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab.

The Girl Scouts are in the fourth and fifth grades and the first thing they had to do was earn their Aid Patch by helping with a younger troop.

"We helped the Brownies four to six times by doing things like reading stories, and telling about the project we did," said Alexis.

Eleanor said they taught the Brownies Girl Scout songs they learned at camp.

Heather said they cleaned out the cat kennels and socialized with the cats.

"Eleanor and I go to Valley View Elementary School, and we decorated a box and set it up in our school, sent out flyers, and made announcements so we could collect donations for animals supplies during the month of February to take with us to Kanab," said Heather.

Sydney said at Best Friends they were split into groups and they either worked with cats, dogs, or potbelly pigs. They either cleaned or socialized with the animals.

"We took the dogs and pigs on walks, but the cats took us on walks," said Sydney.

"We walked the pigs by throwing air-popped popcorn where we wanted them to go," said Caitlin. "We were supposed to randomly throw it so it wasn’t in a straight line so they had to hunt for it."

"The girls also doubled their cookie booth by holding four cookie booths to raise extra money for their service project," said Liz Nafus, Troop 108 Girl Scout leader. "So our whole trip was paid by selling cookies. Ciarra Nafus, alone, sold over 700 boxes.

"Best Friends Animal Sanctuary is the largest no kill animal shelter in the United States," said Nafus.

"When we went to Best Friends, it was a unique experience because while we worked we also socialized and had fun with the animals. It wasn’t just working," said Dominique. "I worked with the cats on two different shifts. We each put in 7 or 8 physical community service hours."

Ciarra said they walked the animals and fed them. "Socializing with the potbelly pigs was fun, because we gave them belly rubs.

"They had bristly hair and it is very thick, and feels weird at first," said Ciarra. "Pigs are nice if you treat them properly. If you treat them mean, then they will be defensive."

Tori said they were able to take one of the dogs home for a sleep over.

"We had a Rottweiler mix named Rebo, who stayed over night with us," said Tori. "He was older and really nice. We had to fill out an overnight form that will go in his adoption file on how he did with a large group of children. He came with a sleep over pack that had treats, a blanket, tissues, and potty bags. He wasn’t supposed to get on the furniture, but dogs will do what they do."

"When I went to Best Friends, I worked with the cats first, and the kitties liked to climb on top of you," said Maddie. "Most of the cats were really nice. I also worked with bunnies. At first I just watched them play, and then we got to help move them into new pens, and feed them and give them water and treats. We also moved guinea pigs into outdoor pens so they could run around.

"We also had a sleep over with Ressa, and got to say what the dog liked about it and what we didn’t like about the dog," said Maddie. "The next day we walked her, and then she got adopted."

Alexis said when they were working with the pigs, there were two pigs who didn’t like people. They were named Penelope and Metro. One of them had been neglected by an owner and he was really sunburned and had skin damage.

"What was a highlight for the girls was a doctor in St. George who had made a prosthetic for a horse named Riley at Best Friends, who would have otherwise been put down," said Nafus. "The girls got to see him working on Riley and meet him and hear all about the process of the prosthetic."