Town workers install one of two of the bottle cap benches made for the town by Girl Scout Troop 1094 as part of a community service project. The bench is located on a walking path near the railroad tracks, just to the east of Gem Road.
NEW PALESTINE — The benches are sturdy, comfortable to sit on and make the town look a little nicer.
The two-and-a-half-year-long project of collecting bottle caps, cleaning them and turning them in to be recycled and made into park benches by a local Girl Scout Troop is complete.
Two benches were delivered to officials with the Town of New Palestine in late June who said they were pleased with the finished product and couldn’t wait to put them to good use.
Members of Girl Scout Troop 1094 spent the past couple of years collecting the caps to have them turned into park benches, a community work project designed to help the troop earn its Bronze Award. The award is the first of three awards Girl Scouts can earn as they make their way through the adventure program with a Silver Award coming next at the cadet level and then finally a Gold Award at the senior level.
Troop leader Rachel Strong said the girls were so thrilled with the way the benches turned out and look forward to seeing them in our community for many years.
“As part of the bronze award, each girl had to put in 20 hours towards the project, and the girls hit that goal cleaning and sorting 400 pounds of caps and planning the project,” Strong said.
The girls gave the caps to Green Tree Plastics in Evansville, who then turned them into beautiful and sturdy benches for the community to use.
“We have submitted our project report to Girl Scouts of Central Indiana for final approval and then the 13 girls who worked on the project will be given the Bronze Award, which is the highest award a Girl Scout Junior can achieve,” Strong said.
Officials with the Town of New Palestine say they too are thrilled with how well the benches turned out. Town manager Jim Robinson had one of the benches installed on a fairly long walking path near the train tracks just off of Gem Road.
“That’s a good spot because it’s a pretty heavily used walking path, and I know people will want to take a break and use the bench,” Robinson said.
No one would ever guess the benches, which weight several hundred pounds and are quite sturdy, were made with bottle caps. Robinson had work crews anchor the bench by the tracks down to the cement path just to make sure it doesn’t disappear or gets knocked over.
“I don’t think anyone could just walk off with the bench, but some might try to knock it over, and we don’t want that because they are so nice,” Robinson said.
The spot for the second bench is yet to be determined, but it will be put in a place where there is a lot of foot traffic, Robinson noted. He said they’ve narrowed it down to a couple of places around town and will be diplomatic about selecting the second spot for the other bench.
Robinson also said the work done by Troop 1094 was such a kind act and saved the town at least a couple of thousand dollars, which is what two solid benches would have cost had they gotten them from a business.
“Our little pocket park that we have has two benches in there and that cost us a $1,000 each, so we’re really thankful for the Girl Scouts who did a wonderful job,” Robinson said.
Strong is proud of her Troop for doing something that will have a lasting effect. She said the girls had kind of backed into doing the project a few years ago after the Environmental Club at New Palestine Elementary School had started collecting caps but then had to abandon the project due to the pandemic.
Troop 1094 members agreed unanimously to step in and take over the project. They started collecting as many caps as they could and needed a total of 400 pounds of caps — 200 pounds for each of the benches before handing the caps over to the recycling company who finished the work.
