See How A Bristol Girl Scout Helped Improve Environment For Bees, Bats, More

BRISTOL, RI — A girl scout from Bristol has earned the Gold Award, the highest honor in Girl Scouting, after she helped restore pollinators such as butterflies, bees, bats, and hummingbirds, to the local environment.

Emma Quigley received the award after completing her project titled "Project Pollinators."

Quigley’s project focused on education, outdoors, and animals. The central issue that her project addressed was helping to restore pollinators to the local environment.

"My project was important to me because I care about the environment, and I enjoy working with children," Quigley said. "I know that pollinators are an essential part of our lives and ecosystems, but they are declining."

She started her project by attending lectures at her local library, met with her advisors, and read several books to gain background knowledge on pollinators, their habits, and reasoning for their decline. Throughout her project, she focused on educating younger children about the importance of pollinators and their relation to us.

Quigley ran hour long classes at her local library that focused on different types of pollinators such as butterflies, bees, bats, and hummingbirds. She spoke about their habitats and the importance of pollinators.

Quigley read stories and conducted craft activities and games to keep the children engaged in learning. She provided take-home projects such as seed bombs and biodegradable planters for the children to take home and plant to create their own gardens.

"I like working with younger children, and they will be able to pass along the knowledge that they gained to keep saving pollinators," Quigley said.

Quigley also created a pollinator kit for people to check out at the library. The kit includes activities and information about pollinators, as well as tools to observe and record information about local pollinators.

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