Have you ever wondered about the turkeys roaming around Alameda [1]? They seem to be everywhere! Girl Scout Troop 33930 [2] answered many questions about our feathered friends for their Bronze Award project. The Bronze Award can be earned by Scouts who are in the rank of “Juniors” (fourth- to fifth-graders). It is usually a service project that has been planned and done by the troop in response to a need that they have identified in their community.
[3]I recently caught up with troop leader Brittany Gentile and her daughter Sydney at Tucker’s Ice Cream to interview them about their troop’s project. Gentile and Meagan Motley lead a Junior troop of nine girls—Aaliyah Biggs, Caroline Gritz, Cassidy Motley, Emelia Friberg-Senti, Iza de Barros Barreto, Lori Chiu, Molly Williams, Sydney Talevich, and Zerena Montague. I asked her and her daughter to describe their project and how their troop came up with the idea and the project itself.
“For our Bronze Award project, we identified the problem of wild turkeys living in Alameda [4] in increasing numbers and residents not always knowing how to interact with them,” Gentile explained. “We researched turkeys using a series of articles and made a visit to Lindsay Wildlife Experience [Walnut Creek] to talk to wildlife experts there on issues that turkeys pose. Each scout took a topic and compiled the information in a presentation and in an informational handout.”
Gentile noted that the troop also created a wildlife observation project—“GS Turkeys of Alameda”—on the iNaturalist [5] app to help track turkey sightings in Alameda as citizen scientists.
“Our troop wanted to do a project about animals (for the Bronze Award), but we were having a hard time coming up with something that would fill a niche,” Gentile and daughter Sydney added. The girls started focusing on wildlife, looking at different bird options and community needs before deciding to research turkeys. “We thought that this would be a good topic and something that nobody else had covered yet,” Gentile explained. The troop worked on the project throughout the Girl Scout year.
Asked about what the presentation and handouts covered, Gentile said, “The topics we researched included where the turkeys came from, turkey social behavior, turkey habitat and diet, natural predators, problems turkeys cause, how to deal with problem turkeys, what to do if you find an injured or dead turkey, how to keep both wild turkeys and humans safe, and other interesting facts.”
[6]After the research was done, the next step was to spread it around the community. “To educate people of Alameda on turkeys and how to interact with them we hosted information booths at two Alameda Farmers Markets, on May 23 and May 30,” Gentile explained. “We presented [the project] to the Alameda Girl Scout Service Unit, handed out flyers to Encinal Nursery and Ploughshares [Nursery], and posted the information on Nextdoor and Alameda Peeps.”
That part of the project was not easy, she said: “I think what was the most challenging for a lot of the girls was public speaking and presenting this information to other people.” Sydney agreed, but also stated that she enjoyed eating ice cream after presenting to the Alameda Girl Scout Service Unit—an end-of-year treat for the troop leaders and volunteers.
For Girl Scout Troops working on the Bronze Award, Gentile said, “I believe the best advice is to pick a project that you’re really interested in because it’s a long project, so it helps if it’s something that fascinates you.”
Troop 33930 hopes that the information they gathered helps the community to better understand turkeys and how to coexist with them. Sydney said she views turkeys differently now and thinks about what she and her troop learned every time she sees one.
If you are curious about wild turkeys after reading this, additional informational handouts can be still found at the Alameda Museum [7].