The Evans City Junior Girl Scouts braved the unseasonably cold, wet weather on May 15 to provide the residents at a women’s shelter with a little beauty and free produce.

The 10- and 11-year-olds in Troop 20122 donned hoodies and rain gear to plant flowers, shrubbery, herbs and vegetable seedlings at the Victims Outreach Intervention Center (VOICe) women and children’s’ shelter in southwestern Butler County.

The troop’s two scout leaders, Jody Mischik and Tracy Brody, in September talked with their 11 scouts about the importance of doing community service while brainstorming ways for the girls to achieve the Girl Scouts Bronze Award, which is the highest award bestowed on junior scouts.

“We wanted to come up with something different,” Mischik said. “We had done donations to VOICe before, so we decided to talk to them.”

When the VOICe officials said a flower and vegetable garden would be extremely beneficial at the shelter, the troop more than embraced the idea.

The first action was to visit the Phipps Conservatory in Pittsburgh to get ideas for the colors and arrangements of the flowers at the shelter.

The girls then delivered a letter to the Cranberry Township Home Depot requesting the donations of soil, vegetable plants, perennial plants, flowers, deer mesh and materials to build a 4-by-8-foot raised garden bed.

Mischik reported that Home Depot donated every item the troop needed.

“It shows that there are great people in the world who still care enough to donate all these things,” she said. “We didn’t have to hold a fundraiser to (pay for the project.)”

The troop members’ parents also provided plants and endless support for the event, she said.

Mischik said the girls planted seeds at a scout meeting more than a month before the event and tended to them at home every day.

“So some of the vegetables and herbs planted at the shelter were actually grown from seed by the girls,” Brody said.

The troop met at the shelter on a Sunday armed with shovels, spades, soil and energy. They worked on the planting project for four hours.

“(The girls) really wanted to do something that would enable the residents to look out the windows and see something pretty and introduce some beauty into a life that’s lost everything,” Brody said.

Isabella Mischik, 11, who is Jody Mischik’s daughter, said her favorite part of the day was the planting.

“I got to help other people and it was really fun,” Isabella said. “You get messy.”

She also understands the impact the vegetables will have on the shelter when they are harvested this fall.

“They won’t have to go to a store to get vegetables, it’s just free,” Isabella said.

She also had a few laughs at the expense of her mother, who helped dig and plant.

“My mom didn’t use her gloves because they got wet, so she had to use her hands and they got all dirty and stuff.”

Julianna Ferraro, also 11, enjoyed the trip to Phipps Conservatory, where the troop decided on purple, pink, white and red for the shelter flowers’ color scheme.

“(The residents) will be able to see different colors where it was a little plain before,” she said.

Julianna said tomatoes, cucumbers, peas, squash and lettuce were planted at the shelter.

“I learned that taking the time to help others is worth it, and that it’ll make others happy when they look at the job you did,” she said.

Julianna admitted the weather could have been a little warmer.

“It was very cold, and it hailed on us,” she recalled. “There was no sun, and then it snowed.”

Jody Mischik said that all 11 scouts received their Bronze Awards in the form of a pin and patch.

“We hope the vegetable garden will help the people who live at this facility,” she said.

“They are already going through a tough enough time. They shouldn’t have to worry about the little things.”