Girl Scouts at the San Marcos River Cleanup
by Jo Anne Johnson

I don't think it is ever too soon to introduce kids to the fun of paddling, or the importance of taking care of our natural resources, so I thought it was a great plan to take my daughter's 4th-5th grade Girl Scout troop up to San Marcos for the river cleanup. The girls had a terrific time, and loved meeting all the people that were there to help take care of the river. For many of them, it was their first expsure to community service of any type, and it was a terrific eye opener.

We only worked in City Park, and the girls came up with quite a bit of trash - mostly cigarette butts and beer cans.

After working on Saturday, we retired to Pecan Park for lunch, where we encountered a deer very interested in what all the ruckus was.

We had planned for the weekend to be our first campout (for many of the girls, anyway), but with the cold temperatures, we bunked at my house. The good news is that neither trash nor weather was a deterrant to the girls - they all want to take Fundamentals of Canoeing as soon as they are old enough to take it from their Girl Scout council, and get on the rivers and lakes as soon as possible!