Posted on 07/19/2009 6:46:15 AM PDT by SandRat
FORT HUACHUCA — One of the first things a group of post Brownies did with a solar oven was bake brownies.
Members of Brownie Troop 2181 have decided their community service project will involve solar ovens. The girls’ goal is to buy five of the ovens for needy families.
“We want to help people who don’t have a lot,” 6-year-old troop member K.J. Engasser said.
The recently formed troop is working with Baja Arizona Sustainable Agriculture, a nonprofit education organization in Sierra Vista that promotes sustainable food production and sustainable methods of cooking, such as solar ovens
That the Brownies decided to make solar ovens their service project caught the eye of Democratic U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, whose 8th Congressional District in Arizona includes the fort.
On Saturday, she visited the girls during a solar cooking demonstration at the Murr Community Center on post. She praised them for coming up with the project.
A strong supporter of solar energy, Giffords even talked about the girls’ effort on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives. She read her comments and presented a copy to each troop member.
Saying Arizona is the top state in receiving sunshine, it is only rational that solar energy would be captured, “and using solar ovens is part of that,” Congresswoman Giffords said.
The troop’s adult leader and K.J.’s mom, Kristen, said when she and other adult leaders were looking for a service project, they wanted something that would do three things — help the environment, help the girls experience a different culture and make a difference.
Two of the solar ovens will go to families on the San Xavier Indian Reservation near Tucson, and already the troop has been asked to come and taste tribal food, the leader said.
Sun doesn’t cooperate
Before Giffords, a former Brownie, arrived, four solar ovens were being used to cook different types of bread, Cornish game hens and a tomato pie. The cooking demonstration was being put on by members of Baja Arizona Sustainable Agriculture.
It was difficult, with the sun constantly darting behind clouds. That limited temperatures in the ovens to between 250 and 300 degrees.
The girls had baked their brownies a day or so earlier.
Kristen Engasser said the object of the project is for members of the troop to be “able to see the impact they can make ... letting them know that even at their young age, each of them matter, and they can make a difference in the world.”
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Brownie Troop 2181must raise funds to give five special solar ovens to needy families.
The ovens cost slightly more than $200 each. That means the girls need to raise more than $1,000 to provide the ovens to two families on the San Xavier Reservation, a Habitat for Humanity family and two families living near the border.
To that end, the troop plans a spaghetti dinner and several bake sales starting in September.
For more information about Brownie Troop 2181 and its solar oven community service project, contact Kristen Engasser at 459-8187.
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Herald/Review senior reporter Bill Hess can be reached at 515-4615 or by e-mail at bill.hess@svherald.com.
(Bill Hess•Herald/Review)
You can get this stuff for camping and not $200 but what is a tomato pie?
Girl Scouts are not supposed to be a fund raising organization, except for Girl Scouts.
Girl Scouts are supposed to sell GS cookies first, then get permission for a limited number of other fund raisers.
If the girls vote to donate their troop money to charity- so be it. But this sounds like grown ups using these little kids for an agenda.
(My troop made solar cookers out of Pringles cans and box ovens that bake with charcoal, and they didn’t spend $200 per project... more like $5)
Tomato pie sounds like hispanic for pizza
Agreed, those are similar to the Rules for Boy Scouts, but then perhaps the Local GSA Council located in Liberal Loon Tucson approved it.
I'm sure a solar oven is right at the top of every needy families' wish list.
Why not start a drive to get non-needy families who believe in global warming to ditch their high carbon footprint electric and gas ranges and learn to get by with a solar oven and a hot plate. Just think how much they could pretend they were helping the environment. But I'm afraid that switch would never happen, anymore than Algore will give up private jet travel and big, A/C'd SUVs.
Soon there will be a government pork project to purchase solar ovens for poor people in Seattle who can’t afford to pay their gas or electric bills.
Heck of a job on the Brownies.
Hah! Just try to get than oven "cooking" on a fine, misty, cloudy day in Seattle. Do you really think the "poor" people will pull their meals from the microwave to watch their new solar ovens bake for 2 hours?
That would be about what some government bureaucracy would come up with. Solar ovens would probably be useful for about 60 days a year in Seattle.
Solar oven aren’t the easiest to use. You have to really work at it to get the technique down. Needy families don’t always cook anyway.... , most have food stamps and buy prepackaged food.
This doesn’t make any sense to me at all.
No electricity (cut off for non payment) - no microwave, solar is better! And no greenhouse gases are produced. Double plus good!
It’s for the chilluns.
I’d like to warm a Democratic congressperson’s heart...over a low fire.
Exactly. Solar ovens can be made out of any cardboard box even a pringles can or a pizza box. I have one made out of a big toilet paper cardboard box and some foil for a total cost of around $1. See, I just saved them $199. I must say it’s fun and a no brainer to use and the food is quite tasty. Nothing wrong with using the sun especially since it doesn’t cost anything. Honestly, if a poor person really wanted to save $$$ they would have already been using a solar oven. The thing is why bother when many times your food and electricity are paid for by taxpayers.
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