Our Silver Award Project

Our Silver Award project was centered around pollinators and what we can do to save them. We chose to do this Silver Award Project because we wanted to try and help lessen the blow caused by Colony Collapse Disorder. We started out with a specific idea and started to brainstorm what we could do to help. We came up with ideas to educate the public, put pollinator houses in each of Arlington's parks, and our main goal was to plant a pollinator garden in a park that was in need of something to help the pollinators.

We went to the Arlington Parks and Recreation Committee and told them some of our ideas for the parks. They approved our ideas

During the two years we worked on this project, we did lots of hands on work. We held booths at the Arlington Town Day as well as the Lexington Farm Fair. We recycled plastic water bottles and cut down an invasive plant, called Japanese Knot weed, to create a pollinator house craft. We also made clover seed bombs to hand out with fliers so that these people could learn more about pollinators and make a more welcoming space for pollinators in their own backyards.

Some unexpected projects came up throughout the Silver Award Project that we took on and altered to make a part of out Silver Award Project. For example, two of our hand built pollinator houses were picked to be displayed in the Magnolia Park Birdhouse competition. We also ran a Brownie Bug Badge at Habitat in Belmont that was mainly centered around pollinators.

Although we did not complete all of the plans we had hoped for, we completed our main plan to build a pollinator garden in one of Arlington's parks that was most in need of a space friendly to pollinators. We met with a local Landscape Architect to help us make the plan for our garden. Once we were done, we had our plants and materials donated from local businesses, and worked hard to plant them in our garden. Our pollinator garden now stands in Waldo Park in Arlington Massachusetts.