Girl Scout troop tests emotional impact of local sights
ROCKLAND — Does a picture of a piece of trash resting within an otherwise beautiful landscape impact a person's emotions? How about a sign representing a community organization?
The eight girls from Rockland and Thomaston who make up Girl Scout Troop 2117 designed a project to test emotional responses to everyday sights.
Just in time for the annual Girl Scouts of America's World Thinking Day 2016, each girl, age 11 -13, toured her local area, snapping pictures of sights that resonated positive and negative emotions in her.
Each girl then contributed to a display two pictures of positives and two pictures that represented a need for change. The display is set up at Rockland Public Library this week.
With the display is a request for community members to cast their votes for the pictures that resonated with them as well. This is not a contest, and no winner will be chosen. However, Troop participants may come away with a deeper understanding of the power of photo images in the media.
The girls came up with the media project on their own, used their own cameras, and did not discuss ahead of time what images they planned to capture.
"Ironically, we ended up with three pictures of the Rockland Public Library, a picture of the Thomaston Public Library, and a picture of the South Thomaston Public Library," Troop leader Janet Corcoran said in an email.
"The girls were affected by the photos and especially the trends they saw in their choices. Libraries were featured heavily as good things and disrespect of shared space (litter/ graffiti) was a trend on the needs change side," she said.
Now they wait for the community response, which they intend to have the results of by the end of March.
Based on that response, the Troop will consider extending the project into a community service mission.
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