Megan Donnelly, a junior at High School South, was determined to provide equal access to opportunities for people confined to wheelchairs. For her Girl Scout Gold Award project she designed and built wheelchair accessible flower beds for the children of Mercer Elementary School, a Mercer County Special Services school on Old Trenton Road in Hamilton. The students with wheelchairs were formerly unable to participate in the school’s annual flower planting project in ground-level flower beds.
A Girl Scout for 12 years, Donnelly has lived in West Windsor for eight years. She earned her silver award by doing a cupcake decorating activity for underprivileged kids at different camps in Trenton. Besides Girl Scouts she plays soccer for school and travel teams.
Debbie Aimers of West Windsor, the mother of another scout in the troop, suggested that Donnelly talk to Mercer Elementary School about a possible project. Aimers’ other daughter, Julia, is a student at the school. Donnelly met with Mary Marcinkowski, a teacher at Mercer Elementary, who presented the idea of making wheelchair-accessible flower beds. She was happy to help create something so that all the students could participate in the school’s annual planting project.
“The major challenges in this project were creating the design of the flower bed and learning how to use the tools needed to make it,” Donnelly says. “This was the first time I had ever done any sort of large scale building so a lot of time went into the research and trial part of the project.” Donnelly constructed the flower beds, stained them to ensure that they would be durable, and delivered them to the school.
“One thing that I love about Girl Scouts is watching girls stretch themselves by trying new and challenging things,” says Louisa Ho, her troop leader and project advisor. “Through her project, Megan learned a whole new set of life skills (construction), in addition to providing a valuable service to the school. After finding a design that would meet all of the needs of the students, she went to work building two of the beds for the school.”
The faculty at the school were eager for the students to come back to school so they could begin using the flower beds. Donnelly assisted the students in their first planting project using the new wheelchair-accessible beds.
“The planters were perfect for the students to use in various ways,” says Marcinkowski. “Some were able to wheel their chairs right up to the sides while others used adaptive equipment such as ladders or gait trainers (walkers) to help them to stand. All the students were able to help put dirt in, mix the compost, and plant the fall flowers.” They will also be able to pick vegetables they planted in the beds.
“As a parent of a student attending Mercer Elementary School, I was so thrilled when Megan offered to build handicapped accessible garden beds,” says Aimers. “Now the children have the opportunity to take a hands on approach to gardening that will not only be fun but also educational.”
For information about joining Girl Scouts as a girl or adult volunteer, contact Louisa Ho at 609-371-2119 or E-mail girlscoutswwp@verizon.net.
