Making the Washing Station

Today was a huge stepping stone for my Gold Award Project. I knocked out a major part to my project: the washing station for the horses. A few of Hickory's NHS members and a few members of Hickory's Sapphira Pearl came out to volunteer and help build the washing station.









 To the left, Spraying the outline for the base of the washing station.

Next, the volunteers get to work on digging the 6' x 8' x 4' hole.

Still digging...

Claire and Aly stain the frame for the base of the washing station.

Justin, Andrew, and Zach were in charge of digging the 5 foot deep holes for the posts.

The Sapphira Pearl girls start to lay the stepping stones for the washing station.

One post done, one more to go and the frame being nailed into the ground.

Justin and Andrew pour some quik-crete to keep the posts from moving.

The volunteers moving the extra dirt and waiting for conrete to be made.

At the end of the day, there were only 3 volunteers left and a finished washing station!

Buying and Cutting wood

Yesterday, My mom and I went to Home depot and bought wood for the frame of the horse washing station. We bought 4 2x4's that were 8 feet long and 2 4x4's for the two posts that will hold the Horse's leads as it is being washed.

Here are some pictures of the work we did cutting the wood to the right size and making stakes to help keep the shape of the frame as we poor concrete.

After Lee showed me how to cut the wood, I used the handsaw and cut a few pieces myself!

This week I will be putting up a sign-up sheet to get help from Sapphira Pearl, Mag Frat, and National Honor Society for this Saturday when we start the actual building process. We will begin the actual building process on Saturday, April 28 at 9 AM at North West River Park! 

The Start line

This blog is going to show my journey as I work toward my Girl Scout Gold Award. For those of you who don't know, the Gold Award is the highest project you can recieve in Girl Scouting. My project, when it is finished, will have been 80 hours of community service that incorporate my leadership skills and my ability to plan and organize.

My Project:
For my Gold award, I will be working with a number of clubs at my school and a few family friends to build a horse washing station and to paint a mural at North West River Park in Chesapeake. There will also be a sign posted to remind park users to return the station to the way they found it. I am going to be planning an event in July at the park's Equestrian Center, where the station and mural will be, for young children to demonstrate how to take care of Horses and Horse Safety. I plan to work with local Equestrian Centers and the park to plan this event. At the end of my project, I will have a brochure to leave in the Ranger Station with a few tips on how to take care of horses.

Here are a few before shots at the Equestrian Center at North West River Park

Here are the plans for the Horse Washing Station and the mural

Stay tuned to read about my journey on working to receive this awesome award! I am looking forward to giving back to my community through this project and showing how much dedication I have for girl scouting, especially after 12 years of selling girl scout cookies ! :)