Girls Scouts of Eastern Oklahoma Troop 73 has done it again—adding two more school supplies boxes to local schools, bringing the total to five. They include boxes shaped like school buses at Sapulpa Middle School and Sapulpa Junior High, one shaped like a pencil at Jefferson Heights Elementary, and now two more shaped like Crayola crayons are at Holmes Park Elementary and Freedom Elementary, which are purple and blue, respectively.
All told, the girls of Troop 73 have spent about 50 hours on these boxes. “It’s been about ten hours for each box,” Troop Leader Rachel Burrow told Sapulpa Times as they mounted the purple crayon box to its wooden stand. The crayons have been especially challenging, with their cylindrical shape and pointed top. “We made the top with this slimy stuff that kept falling through,” Cairees Orn said. “We had to give it more structure with duct tape and keep applying the [Bondo] until it dried and hardened.”
Soon the girls will be adding another color: silver. When complete, they will achieve the Silver Award. The only big award left to gain will be the coveted Gold—essentially the Girl Scout equivalent of the Eagle Scout.
“But that one’s harder,” Burrows says. “With Gold, they have to do a large project on their own. In Silver, they can work together.”
The school supplies boxes are filled with donated supplies, free to use by any student needing a replacement pencil or marker. The Glenpool Walmart has been footing the bill for most of them, generously giving $2,000 worth of pens, pencils, glue sticks, paper, markers, and much more.
The boxes are placed in front of security cameras to help keep vandalism to a minimum and they’re proving popular. Burrows says they’ve refilled them three times. “We need the community to step in and start donating the supplies,” she said. There’s no process or restrictions for the boxes; those willing to help can just buy the school supplies and place them in the box.
Supply boxes shaped like schoolhouses will be up next. They’ll be placed at the Washington Administration building and at Bartlett Academy. That will leave only Liberty STEM, and Burrow says they’re considering a different design for that school, “maybe a gear or a beaker.”
