Over the course of nine days, Girl Scout troops 6154 and 5925 collected and donated two semi-trucks filled with bottled water to southern communities in need of assistance after the recent winter storms.
"Within a day, we decided we were going to do it," says Jen Belt, leader of Troop 6154. "We made a Facebook event and started posting about it. We had no clue how we were going to get (the water) there or how much it was going to cost."
Belt and Micki Young, leader of troop 5925, were originally planning on renting a U-Haul and driving the water down to the foodbank in Texas themselves. However, within 48 hours, they had accumulated enough to fill one semi-truck load of water.
The company that employs Belt, Melaluca, caught wind of the water drive and offered to pay for a semi-truck to take the water down for them. Another local company, BBI Logistics, offered to make arrangements for another semi-truck to carry water down for them if they would be able to raise enough money to cover the costs.
The girl scout troops raised about $3,721 to cover the cost of the truck when Niagara Bottling offered to donate enough bottles of water to fill the next semi-truck.
The troops were helping to physically load the pallets of water into the trucks.
"Them physically being able to load the truck was very tactical for them," Young says. "They had so much fun and had a real connection to it. That was when it really hit them, how much we actually did."
The first truck arrived at Central Texas Food Bank in Austin, Texas on March 8. The second truck arrived at the Mississippi Food Network in Jackson, Mississippi shortly after.
"I personally received a bunch of messages from people that were affected in Texas," Belt says. "They reached out to me and said, 'You have no idea how much it means that your girl scout troop in Ohio gathered enough water to send those semi-loads to us.' That just blows my mind."
Both Belt and Young expressed gratitude for all the community members who donated to their troops' water drive.
"I'm just so grateful for number one, the monetary donors and all the donors that brought water to us," Belt says. "I'm super grateful for Melaluca for paying for a truck. I'm super grateful for BBI for providing the logistics of getting the truck, and Niagara bottling for donating an entire truck of water. It was amazing."
Nora McKeown is an editorial assistant. Feedback welcome at feedback@cityscenemediagroup.com.
