Four Girl Scouts from Troop 2522 culminated their Silver Award project when they put two dog waste stations inside the Oceanside Park Dog Park on Sept. 13.
The four scouts are Emmeline McClusky, Cora McCarthy, Toni Zielenski and Shannon Grant, who all profess to love dogs. The project required almost 50 hours of work and effort. The waste stations were built by the four scouts and installed by the maintenance staff at the park.
“I think what makes this project stand out is that they took a lot of time in the very, very beginning to research what community needs were out there,” said Terry Kemp Zielenski, Toni’s mom. “And they aligned what they wanted to do with community needs. They did a lot of research on different projects, and ultimately decided that this was the one they were most passionate about.”
That passion comes from their personal connection to the park, as well as being of service to their community.
“I think we all spend a lot of time outside and at public parks and places like this, so we wanted to do something to make them better,” said Cora. “This is a community place, and it’s also really close to the middle school. It’s a popular hang out place, too. And I think having something here would definitely benefit the community.”
The project is also about progressing and excelling as Girl Scouts.
“We put a lot of work into this, and this has been two years in the making,” said Cora. “Also, it’s getting us closer to earning our Gold Award, so it’s definitely a big milestone.”
According to Cora’s dad Bill McCarthy, these four scouts are involved in so much more than one project when it comes to serving their community and their futures.
“They take part in different volunteering things outside of just Girl Scouts,” McCarthy said. “They’re all involved in the community in the high school and middle school. They’re all in sports. They’re all in clubs at school, music, church. So they’re very active in the community outside of just Girl Scouts. But that is also a big part of what they do.”
The scouts are thinking about helping people they know in their community, not just an abstract concept of service.
“A lot of kids come here, not just from the middle school, but from the high school and elementary schools, because there’s playgrounds here too, not just parks,” said Shannon.
“It’s a lot of where our friends hang out,” said Toni.
The desire for a clean dog park also comes from their love of dogs. Toni and Shannon each have multiple dogs.
“I love them,” Shannon said. “I have a bunch of them.”
According to Emmeline’s mom Judy McClusky, the process for accomplishing this project was long and effortful.
“The girls have put in almost 50 hours of time, (including) researching the best project to do,” McClusky said. “Then they had a proposal. Then we contacted the Town of Hempstead. They found a location. And they picked out the dog waste stations. They put them together. And this week they will present it to younger Girl Scouts, what they did for their project.”
For the scouts, figuring out where to put a dog waste station was a no-brainer.
“Because this is a dog park where dogs hang out,” said Emmeline.
