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Girl Scouts and Yesterday’s News® Help Each Other

More than 130 Girl Scouts are wearing the Purina Checkerboard logo on their sashes this year. Twenty troops from the Girl Scout Council of Dogwood Trails, Inc., in southwest Missouri, participated in Project Pet Litter, a program that recycles old telephone directories into Yesterday’s News® pet litter.

The Nestlé Purina PetCare plant in Springfield, Missouri, gave five cents for each telephone directory collected. The Girl Scouts collected more than 47,000 books, and they received a check for $2,596.90.

“I’m amazed at the dedication of the Girl Scouts,” says Elizabeth Aull, Recycling Coordinator, Springfield, Missouri, plant. “They’re not only doing a good thing for the environment by keeping the old directories out of landfills, but they are also performing a service for area businesses by recycling the used directories. The girls collect directories from lodging facilities, insurance agencies, real estate offices, manufacturing businesses, and more.”

The top three troops that collected the most telephone directories were previously given a tour of the plant and were shown how the books are recycled into Yesterday’s News®.

“Since this year’s winners visited the plant in prior years, we treated them to a pizza party at Incredible Pizza,” Elizabeth says. AT&T Yellow Pages co-sponsored the party and gave recycled party favors to the troops. Each Girl Scout received a goodie bag with a plush puppy, Nestlé candy, recycling information, and trinkets.

The Girl Scouts have participated in Project Pet Litter for the past four years. In their first year, the troops collected 10,000 directories, a slim figure when compared to this year’s collection of 47,271 directories. A Purina Checkerboard logo patch was given to each Girl Scout participating in Project Pet Litter.

One troop is saving the money raised from Project Pet Litter and other fundraisers to go to one of the four Girl Scout world center chalets in Mexico.

Next year will be a big year for the troops’ fund raising efforts. Their goal is to collect 95,000 telephone directories for the 95th anniversary of the Girl Scouts of the United States of America.

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