Girl Scouts Advocate for Chimps
By Kat West
Meet the Girl Scouts of Troop 15543. They took a tour of Project Chimps in August. They are doing their Silver Award project, the highest award a Girl Scout Cadette can earn, at Project Chimps. The scouts are also using what they learned on their tour to advocate for chimps.
How are they doing that? Read on to find out!
Touring Project Chimps
The troop toured Project Chimps in August. Heather Swearigen and Amy Spann, co-troop leaders, arranged the tour to help the girls learn about chimpanzee sanctuaries and chimps in general. On the tour the girls were inspired when they learned about the chimps and how much it costs a day to feed them (that’s $7 a day, by the way). Akshita, one of the scouts, tells us they learned about the ropes course that needs to be finished. Other girls thought of other ideas to help too.
Silver Awards at Project Chimps
This troop has 12 members that are sub divided into three groups; two of those groups chose to do their Silver Award projects to help Project Chimps. The first group is adding the last four elements of the ropes course: the cargo net, Burma loops, spider webs and the ‘all aboard’. The second group is making a bench and planters to help brighten up the area. They are even proposing a little library full of books about chimps, pending approval by the site committee.
Advocating in Their Community
Most of the scouts go to the same school. In their seventh-grade hallway was a poster with a picture of a chimp that was, according to the poster, “smiling”. The scouts know better. Because of their Project Chimps tour they know this expression is a fear grimace, and the chimp is in distress. The girls acted and emailed their school principal explaining why the poster was inappropriate and asking for it to be taken down. Scout Sofia P. says, “school is about learning and the poster was spreading misinformation”.
Some of the girls expected the poster to be taken down, others were less hopeful. They didn’t expect what happened next. The principal agreed to have the poster taken down. They also gave the troop the chance to take it down themselves as part of a photo shoot documenting their animal advocacy. Heather, their troop leader, says they are “proud of the girls for using their voices to be leaders in their community”. That’s what Girl Scouts is all about! The troop plans to write an email to the company that makes the poster asking them to stop using inappropriate images of chimps.
What the Girl Scouts Think
Scout Brynn says she feels good advocating for animals because “they can’t talk for themselves so we should”, and Adrienne feels like animals are a big part of our world, so she also feels good doing it.
Do you want to help chimps too? The scouts have some great ideas for you. Amelia says that if you see something like their school’s poster you should take initiative and say something too. Ava R. thinks it’s a good idea to tell people about the fear grimace and let them know that chimp is not smiling.
Although photo shoots with chimps have stopped, companies like Hallmark and American Greetings continue to use images of chimps in distress on their products. But like these Girl Scouts, you can help too!
Speak out about inappropriate images you see and join Troop 15543 in advocating for chimps.
