Firehawks
We are striving to become stewards for the Earth, fostering sustainability and learning to be good people while doing it. We also honor the seasons and the elements and keep in tune with Nature and Spirit through Pagan ritual and lore.
Favorite Activities: Explore creativity through arts and crafts; explore the outdoors and world around us; seasonal rituals
Number of Scouts: 8 (four girls, four boys)
Badges/Pins Earned: Gold Club Award, Samhain badge, Global Ecology badge
Birthday: September 16, 2007
Meetings: First and third Saturdays at 2:00
Leaders: Valerie Willman, Josh Coen
Photos: see smugmug
Grocery Store Ecology Adventure!
In our quest to earn the Global Ecology badge, we explored the rainforest connection, spawning salmon in our local rivers, energy efficiency at home, and recycling (making grocery bags out of recycled t-shirts). Now it was time to bring it all home at our local Market of Choice. We became Food Sleuths!
We broke up into two teams, each with a parent volunteer. Each team got a set of nine cryptic clue cards that led them to various places in the store and specific products that demonstrated how our food and product choices can affect our world and community. Facts on the cards prompted scouts to study labels, manufacturing locations, ingredients, organic status, packaging, and even store signs that pointed out which foods are local. For example, they discovered that a certain brand of salad mix is packaged in “corn plastic” that is compostable; that some organic flours in the bulk section are milled locally; that there are better options to buying individually packaged snack cheeses; that there are safe and responsible laundry soap choices; and that a local coffee roaster is doing everything right (organic, fair trade, shade grown).
Some of the cards instructed scouts to drop select items into their home-made t-shirt grocery bags to become part of our snack after the hunt. Market of Choice donated these items and provided a room where we could all go to eat our snack, share our adventures and what we learned (since each team explored different items) and even sent the produce manager in to talk to us about how they choose local foods and what that means for our community. This was a two-hour activity and the kids loved it and learned a ton!
