Mill Run Park in Manlius received a new sign, trail markers and a printable brochure recently thanks to 15-year-old Amelia Krouse, a girl scout from Troop 10071, who decided to make these updates her project to achieve the Gold Award for Girl Scouts.
“I guess I wanted to do this project because as a kid, I would spend so much time here running around in the trails. A lot of the time I spent here was with the Girl Scouts” said Krouse, a junior at Fayetteville-Manlius High School. “It’s feel like this is a good way to give back.”
Krouse worked with Patti Sawmiller, the director of the Village of Manlius Parks and Recreation Department, who suggested that Mill Run Park needed a new entrance sign because the current one was hard to see with warped and weathered plexiglass covering it.
After learning of the need for a new entrance map, Krouse said she got the idea to add more to the project, including making and placing about 90 trail markers in the park and creating a brochure that includes a history of the park, a map, useful emergency phone numbers, tips to avoid ticks and how to identify harmful plants like poison ivy. The brochure will be available to download at manliusvillage.org/recreation.aspx/.
Creating the new map was done on a trial and error basis, said Krouse, and she had to use a dated map of the park and walk it to find where any new trails were located.
“It was a lot harder than I thought,” she said. “I learned a lot about how hard it is to find spots in the woods when you’re walking around.”
According to Krouse, Gold Award projects with the Girl Scout program are similar to Boy Scouts Eagle Award and they are the highest award that a girl scout can achieve. They must meet several criteria, including already having achieved the bronze and silver awards, choosing a project with an outcome that will last longer than one year in the community and leading a team to help carry out the project.
Krouse said she believes this project is beneficial to the community, and has already heard positive feedback about the new sign that was installed.
“I never realized just how many people use this park,” said Krouse. “It was an exciting and fun to do.”
Hayleigh Gowans is a reporter for the Eagle Bulletin. She can be reached at [email protected].
