Gold Award project benefits birds, senior citizens

DENTON -- Girl Scout Danielle Ridgell of Denton recently earned her Gold Award through a project designed to benefit both birds and senior citizens. She is a member of Troop 154 of Preston, led by Mona Ferris.

“I wanted to help the residents at Caroline Nursing and Rehab … to address the fact that they aren’t able to get in nature and go outside like they used to be able to,” Danielle said. “So I, with the help of my team, we made nesting boxes for outside of the nursing home.”

Danielle’s team included the Caroline County Bird Club; Keith Hale, Advanced Manufacturing Program teacher at the Caroline Career and Technology Center; James Wilson, a volunteer at Adkins Arboretum; members of Danielle’s troop and Girl Scout Troop 374; and members of North Caroline High School’s Leo Club.

“There were some old boxes there that were falling apart,” said Debby Bennett, president of the Bird Club. “The club probably did them 40 years ago.” Danielle’s project replaced those and increased the number to eight.

Danielle gave three presentations to the club detailing her proposal, the projected cost, and ways they could help.

“She was organized, prompt, and responded to details,” Bennett said.

The Bird Club quickly got on board, donating money and offering their help.

Danielle said nesting boxes are important, especially in residential areas where there may not be a lot of natural habitat for birds.

“The (boxes) we made are specifically for Eastern bluebirds, but with the size of the hole, there's a lot of bird species that could use them,” she said. For example, the boxes also are ideal for chickadees, swallows, wrens, and sparrows.

Danielle used a pattern from Hale’s AMP class, and he showed her how to use a machine to cut out the pieces, then sand, glue and nail the nesting boxes together, completing each with a Girl Scout logo on the roof. Class members also helped out.

Nesting boxes help “protect birds and their babies and nests from predators,” Danielle said. The boxes have a little fledging ladder inside that will help the baby birds come out when they're ready to leave the nest, she added.

She said Wilson helped her with the presentation she did for residents of the nursing home and assisted with installing the boxes, when they also placed baffles on the poles to help keep out snakes, raccoons, and other predators.

Danielle said the residents were really excited when they were actually putting the boxes up. Some were just sitting outside to watch.

When she checked the boxes in April, there was nesting material in several of them, and in one of them, she actually saw a bird coming in and out, but she was too far away to tell what species it was.

In her presentation, Danielle told residents the history of nesting boxes and their importance. She also got Bird Club members to come in and talk about the birds that residents may see using the boxes. The Bird Club also helped Danielle make laminated guides featuring 18 different bird species to look for.

“It was fun. We liked working with her,” Bennett said.

“We also did several activities with the residents, which helps them, like, address loneliness that they may be feeling,” Danielle said.

“When we came in for the activities, I think they really enjoyed the bird bingo. They had a lot of fun with that – and the pine cone bird feeders.”

Members of Danielle’s troop helped the residents roll pine cones in peanut butter and bird seed, which they placed in trees and bushes near the nursing home so the residents could see the birds feeding off them.

The residents also made bird bookmarks, and members of Troop 374 and the Leo Club made cards for residents.

“It was just cool to see how much fun they had with all the activities, and how engaged they were, especially during the presentation and bingo, and all the questions they asked,” Danielle said.

The Girl Scout Gold Award is the highest achievement in Girl Scouting, similar to the Eagle Award in Scouting America. Local leaders said they believe Danielle is the first scout from Service Unit 34 to earn her Gold Award in more than a decade. The award requires a Girl Scout to design and execute a minimum 80-hour Take Action project. Only about 5.4% of all Girl Scouts complete their Gold Award, according to Girl Scouts of the USA. Danielle will be recognized in a ceremony at Camp Todd in the fall.

“I’m just very proud of her. They don’t make it easy,” Danielle’s mom Kristen said. “It was a lot of stress.”

Some obstacles included getting the plan approved by the advisory council and turnover in staff at the nursing home.

“She did the project all on her own,” Ferris said. “There were obstacles, but she never gave up. She just kept going.”

Danielle is the daughter of Kristen and Douglas Ridgell of Denton. She has an older brother, Eric, and twin sister, Linda, who is still working on her Gold Award.

Danielle joined Girl Scouts as a Daisy at age 5. She said her favorite activities were going camping and spending the night at Eco Adventures and the Salisbury Zoo.

She and Linda already earned the Girl Scout Silver and Bronze awards with their troops. For their Silver Award, they did a garden at Caroline County Humane Society in Ridgely and built an outdoor agility obstacle course for dogs. For their Bronze Award, they collected toys and books for the children’s ward at Anne Arundel Medical Center in Annapolis.

A 2026 graduate of North Caroline High School, Danielle plans to attend Salisbury University in the fall, studying environmental biology.