Md. teen wins scouting award for restoring garden

ED WATERS Jr.
The Frederick News-Post

THURMONT, Md. (AP) — A Thurmont teen has won the Girl Scout Gold Award by restoring a historic garden.

Hannah Barth, 17, a student at Catoctin High School and member of Troop 81200, spent nearly 80 hours clearing the garden at the Creeger House, 11 N. Church St., and placing heirloom plants in the beds.

The heirlooms, Hannah explained, are native plants that were in the original garden in the 1800s. The plants were donated by residents and organizations for the project.

“The Gold Award is more difficult than the (Boy Scout) Eagle Award because it has to have global impact, not just a local impact,” said Carie Stafford, Hannah’s troop leader.

Hannah likes horticulture and has taken courses in the field at Catoctin High, she said. Her goal is to go to college to study biology or chemistry. She is vice president of the Catoctin FFA.

Hannah began working on the project early this year and has been physically working in the garden since May.

“I took out what wasn’t historically accurate and put in native plants,” she said.

Hannah said she saw the garden as an opportunity for a Gold Award.

A Girl Scout must get approval for a Gold Award project, said Kay Barth, Hannah’s mother, who served as her troop leader several years ago. “There is a lot of planning involved.”

The process included submitting the project idea to the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’s Capital, then working with a mentor, filing a 17-page report. Hannah’s mentor was Camille D’Anunnzio-Szymczak, of Virginia, who holds a doctorate in math. She worked on the project with Hannah via telephone and email.

The project itself was also labor-intensive, Kay Barth said.

“There were a lot of nonheirloom plants, ground cover and other growth. Many of today’s plants are hybrids, not true heirloom plants, but made to make them hardy. Hannah wanted to be accurate to the 1800s.”

Hannah’s presentation board, on display at the Creeger House, shows the initial overgrowth, the work in progress and finished garden. She also made an album of photos and information on the various plants; she installed signs identifying each plant in the garden.

A “global impact” aspect of the project included recycling and reuse of materials. Hannah made a new trellis for a climbing rose of three broken ones. She used many perennial plants that don’t need maintenance and made a French drain using sand and gravel so water would go back into the ground.

Boy Scout Troop 270, other girls from her troop and Venturing Crew 270, a team of boys and girls, helped with the initial clearing of the garden.

Stafford said Hannah was the first Gold Award recipient for the troop as long as she could remember, and the first Gold Award winner in two years in Frederick County.

Donna Voellinger, president of the Thurmont Historical Society, commended Hannah and said the project has enhanced the Creeger House, the home of the society, which dates to the early 1800s.

The climbing rose had been planted by the Creeger family, Voellinger said. The rose was placed in a bucket and nurtured until it could be replanted when Hannah finished the trellis.

“She did a fantastic job,” said Thurmont Mayor John Kinnaird. “It really added a welcome splash of color to the downtown.”

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Information from: The Frederick (Md.) News-Post, http://www.fredericknewspost.com

Copyright 2014 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

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