A number of Girl Scouts completed their Silver Award projects this summer, and Gillian Brodmerkel was anxious to be one of them.
For her project, Brodmerkel built a new fire pit in front of the Girl Scout cabin and added benches around it. She then hosted the children from Butterhill Day School and presented a lesson in fire safety.
Brodmerkel found the old fire pit to be unsafe, because of its loose stones, and thought it wasn’t high enough. There also wasn’t anyplace to sit to enjoy a working fire.
When she first presented the project, Brodmerkel was advised to make modifications because it didn’t affect many people outside of her troop. As a former student of the day school, Brodmerkel presented the idea of a fire safety lesson to the Butterhill staff. Brodmerkel then sought aid from Cornwall Fire Department Assistant Chief Octavius Graham.
To raise funds for supplies, Brodmerkel got her fellow Scouts (and her parents) to help her sell cookies. She made money by doing household chores. And she volunteered at Devitt’s Nursery and Supply so the business would make a donation to the project.
She raised about $500 to purchase stone, cement, gravel, and large stone slabs to construct the four benches.
She started work on the fire pit and benches at the beginning of summer and the project was completed on Sept. 2 with the fire safety class.
Brodmerkel researched fire safety tips on the Internet and created hand-outs for each child. The packets included a coloring page and a maze.
Graham was present during the safety lesson to fact check Brodmerkel’s information and to answer any questions the children may have had.
The lesson ended with a fire in the pit for the children to make S’mores.
