Despite extreme heat, Girl Scouts create rain garden

OAK CREEK -- Extreme heat on Thursday, June 28th did not stop a group of Girl Scouts from Oak Creek from finishing a huge service project. The second graders planted close to 200 plants for a rain garden.

"The girls were too excited to be stopped by the heat," Troop Leader Ann McKillip said.

Armed with shovels, flowers and a lot of passion, the scouts were on a mission to plant a rain garden. It's part of their 100-year anniversary service project. The garden acts like an environmental shelter -- capturing rain water from the gutters and stopping run-off from going into the sewers.

"It's wonderful. We get both another rain garden and an opportunity to educate the next generation," Root Pike Watershed Initiative Executive Director Susan Greenfield said.

The Root Pike Watershed Initiative helped fund the project.

"The rain garden is one of the many practices we're trying to make people aware of through this campaign to encourage them to take individual action clean up our waters," Greenfield said.

"This garden's really important because it's important to the environment. The best part of it is when we plant it, because you get to get your hands dirty," Girl Scout Amanda McKillip said.

"It was important to the girls. They wanted to see the project to completion and finish planting the last of the plants," Ann McKillip said.

So far, three rain gardens have been made in southeast Wisconsin. There is a goal to have close to 40.

CLICK HERE for more details on the Rain Garden Initiative.

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