Paul Bass Photo
Iyla Bhandary-Alexander, Betsy Nardini, and Elethu Rich completed a fire mission Sunday, using paintbrushes rather than hoses.
The three Westvilleans (pictured above from left) joined fellow members of Girl Scouts Troop 60763 in scraping and repainting 28 fire hydrants throughout the neighborhood.
Troop members, who are 10 and 11, have been working on the hydrants for weeks. They needed to choose a “Bronze star” project this summer. They considered creating welcome packets for the animal shelter or laying out wood chips in the Edgewood dog park before settling on the hydrants.
“When we passed them, they were always ugly and dirty,” said Betsy Nardini. Or as her mom, Holly Grossetta Nardini, the troop’s project leader, more diplomatically put it: “We wanted to make Westville look more beautiful because we live here.”
Betsy, a student at Engineering and Science University Magnet School (ESUMS), emailed Fire Chief John Alston Jr., who put her in touch with Assistant Chief Orlando Marcano. The department welcomed the troop’s volunteer offer. So the girls began by mapping out the neighborhood’s hydrants and grading them (A, C, or F) based on their condition.
The FD threw up in wire brushes, wet paint signs, and Microflex Ultra Sense EC gloves. And the girls were in business.
In two teams (the other team consists of Quinn Machesney, Kyra Clarizio, and Sahana Bhandary-Alexander), the girls spent weeks scraping the hydrants and sashing them with signs (like the one above) before returning to brighten them with yellow paint. On Sunday they completed the job.
Pictured above at the Fountain Street fire station, from left: Betsy Nardini, Elethu Rich, Fire Lt. Jose Osorio, Iyla Bhandary-Alexander, and Holly Grossetta Nardini.