Five members of Suffolk Girl Scout Troop 5292 — Emily Baldwin, Mia Eckstrom, Katherine Griffin, Michelle Parker and Kylee Welch — have earned the Girl Scout Bronze Award, the third highest honor and achievement a girl can earn in Girl Scouting.

For their project, the girls focused on improving the Bennett’s Creek Little League fields in Driver.

Two members of the troop played softball at the Bennett’s Creek fields but noticed that their team did not have a specific place to store batting helmets. The team would rest the helmets on the shelf above the bench where they sat, but the helmets were hard for some team members to reach and, on occasion, the helmets would fall on to the girls.

The two Girl Scouts on the team shared the issue with their fellow troop members, and the girls sprang into action.

With the help of the girls’ softball coach, Dan Eckstrom, the girls designed, built and painted a wooden cubby to hold helmets and bats. To get started on the project, the girls visited a local hardware store and learned about lumber and paint to determine what supplies they would need. With help from parents in the Girl Scout troop, the girls measured and cut the wood they had picked out and built the cubby. They then painted it and delivered it to the field, where any team can use it to store helmets and bats during games and practices safely and conveniently.

The Girl Scout Bronze Award is the highest award that Girl Scouts in elementary school can earn. To earn the award, Girl Scouts have to identify a need in the community and carry out a project to address the matter through leadership work.