A troop of Valley Junior Girl Scouts last month restored the Meadowbrook Farm sign on S.R. 202, as a community service project.

The troop, including Grace Bustamonte, Kailey Lingo, Shivani Mathur,  Carolee McCarty and Jessica Patterson, had already accumulated many experience patches, plus a few badges representing understanding of first aid, performing arts and other topics.

In December troop leaders, Tanya Meola and Lyn Peck, asked if the girls would like to explore earning their Bronze Award, which requires a minimum of 20 hours of service to the community and leadership skills.

The girls were unsure about what they would do for their Bronze Award and decided more research was needed.

Peck suggested the troop attend community meetings to ask about the needs of our community. Scout Jessica Patterson suggested the group attend one of the committees of her mother, Snoqualmie City Councilwoman Chelley Patterson, and Carolee McCarty suggested attending one of the committees of her father, North Bend city Planner Mike McCarty.

The girls prepared a PowerPoint presentation and off they went to the Meadowbrook Farm Preservation Association and the Snoqualmie Parks Board. At each meeting, they explained the Bronze Award and ended by asking the committees for suggestions.

The Meadowbrook committee suggested refinishing the entry sign and the Snoqualmie Parks Board had a variety of suggestions, the most exciting of which was helping to design a playground for the Fisher Creek Park site.

The troop decided to do both, choosing the playground design work as their Bronze Award project and the Meadowbrook sign as a community service project.

For the Meadowbrook sign, the girls, parents and leaders spent several hours cleaning, sanding, and staining the sign.

The finishing touch was to paint the letters a cream color so that they would stand out against the dark stain of the wood.

They reinstalled the sign on June 10.

For the playground project the girls did their research and discussed their priorities for a new playground. They came up with several priorities: To make the playground somehow accessible to children in wheelchairs; a zip line; and a climbing web. They presented their ideas at three meetings, and the parks board decided to combine their ideas.

The parks board also asked the girls to help plan a park opening party in September.

The troop moved to the next level on June 13, becoming Cadettes.

Junior Girl Scouts, and a couple of adults, re-installed the Meadowbrook Farm sign. Pictured from left are Dave Battey, Kailey Lingo, Jessica Patterson, Shivani Mathur, Grace Bustamonte, Mike McCarty, and Carolee McCarty.

Grace Bustamonte climbs on a ladder to help with re-installing the Meadowbrook Farm sign.