However, I can’t complain, because these activities have kept me ready to go to sleep at an early time to be sure I wake up at 5:30 for school!
Aside from the rest of my activities, I have been working on getting my silver award in Girl Scouts for the past few months. In order to win this award, it requires 50 hours of community service with a certain project. The project has to be a long-term service project that benefits our area for years to come. For our project, my troop and I have been volunteering in a garden at The Community of Grace church.
We started our planning for this project around this time last year, and finally started to take action on it this past May.
The garden started off as a mess. There were weeds upon weeds in each garden bed. So, that’s where we began. We had put hours in on weeding the beds, turning the soil, planting the vegetables, herbs, and flowers, watering, and placing mulch around the garden to really give it a make-over.
Your probably wondering, “How is this going to count as a long-term project?” Well, with the produce that we have grown and will continue to grow, we have donated it all to the South-East Co-op. For those of you who don’t know, the co-op collects non- perishable foods for those in need, so go donate! Every bit counts. And with this project that is exactly what we are doing. Giving back.
Since we have started this, we have harvested cherry tomatoes, eggplants, cucumber, bell and red peppers, okra, carrots, and squash. We have also grown some basil and have planted flowers around the garden.
Each week my troop and I go out and help maintain it. From pulling the small weeds that have grown in the carrot beds, re-planting, harvesting, turning soil, or just watering.
Even though this project does take time out of my free time (the little of it that I have left), I have learned so much from it. Not just how to actually start a garden or even maintain a garden, but how it teaches how much our help is appreciated. We are making an impact that might not seem like much to us, but is someone else’s meal for the week. The feeling of appreciation, teamwork, and dedication that I get from this is much greater than being able to go and hang out with my friends on the weekends or after school. So, I challenge you to step out in our community and help out. Whether it’s doing something super simple like paying it forward for the person behind you in the Chick-fil-a drive thru or volunteering at your church on Sundays. We’re a community, lets prove it.
***Any questions, comments of recommendations email What Goes Around at whatgoesaroundcitizen@gmail.com
And that’s what’s going around! Soraya Bagheri is a freshman at Grayson High School.
