Rachel Jones

Rachel Jones, a 16 year old Ambassador Girl Scout from Gravette, Arkansas, was inspired to do her Girl Scout Gold Award Project on the Gravette Nature Observation Trail. Gravette, population 2,300, had a small nature trail, but it became obvious that there were improvements that could be done to make the trail more educational and enjoyable for families.

Her project required more than 100 hours of community service to the city of Gravette, She partnered with the town’s Parks and Recreations Department. She built and planted a butterfly garden with the help of her mom and dad at the entrance of the walking trail to beautify the trail entrance and attract butterflies and hummingbirds.

She made it a family affair, her grandmothers helped her with some of the seeds and plants, she constructed an owl house with the help of her grandfather who is an engineer, and installed it on the nature trail. She built five bluebird houses with the help of her grandfather and put them up around the trail, These were all made of recycled wood. She built a bat house with her grandfather an put it up on the nature trail with her dad’s help. Her other grandfather helped her make trail signs.

Additionally, she planned and organized an Earth Day celebration and 27 people from the church’s youth group came out and planted trees and flowers. She picked up trash and cleaned out weeds from the city’s old butterfly garden and got the Gravette Wildlife Observation Trail certified as a Certified Wildlife Habitat by the National Wildlife Federation.

She also wrote a Facebook blog on her project and had several articles published in the local newspaper about her project.

Do you know someone like Rachel Jones? If so, nominate them for a Daily Point of Light Award today!