NORTHRIDGE : Brownies Plant a Garden to Thank School

Call it earning Brownie points.

A troop of Brownies, left without a place to meet after the Northridge earthquake damaged their headquarters, this week showed their gratitude to their new, temporary home, Beckford Avenue Elementary School. The 13 girls, aged 5 to 8, planted a flower garden Thursday at the campus, where they have held evening meetings since the quake.

“We were tired of all the destruction around us,” said Troop Leader Fedelia Hennings. “We wanted to see something beautiful.”

Hennings told the girls, who were eagerly waiting to get their brown and pink uniforms all muddy, that they are responsible for taking care of the flowers they planted at the gate of the Granada Hills school until June. The Brownies will take turns watering the plants, weeding the garden, clearing litter and replanting if necessary.

“It’s written in flannel,” Hennings said of their new responsibilities. (The Brownies’ gardening duties have been permanently added to a cloth banner the troop uses.)

Hennings handed out pansies, impatiens and statice flowers to the girls to plant in the holes they dug.

In addition to presenting the flowers, the Brownies collected aluminum cans to raise money for a plaque dedicating the garden from Troop 101 to the school.

“It’s for the school, to make it look nice,” said Tracy Noda, 5.

Describing her gardening techniques, Tracy said, “You have to plant the flower and make it stand up and water it and give it fertilizer.”

Another Brownie, Katie Stoughton, 7, said, “I want to take care of them and help them grow because I like to make things pretty.”