Beauty is in the eye of the bee-holder at Prince William County Fire and Rescue Station 26 in Woodbridge.
According to a release from Prince William County, 14-year-old Natalie Korzuch planted a pollinator garden at the station as part of her Girl Scout Silver Award.
She originally received the inspiration for this project after visiting the Bee Store in Lake Ridge.
“I went in there not knowing what my silver award project was going to be, and I came out knowing exactly what I wanted to do,” she said.
Natalie worked about 100 hours on this project, according to her mother, Melissa Korzuch. “She raised money. She got donations, cookie money. All of this, I’d say, came to about $1,000 worth of plants. This turned into a lot bigger project than what we thought it was going to be,” Korzuch continued.
Natalie worked with Captain Ericson as well as Earth Sangha, a wild plant nursery in Springfield, to finish it. “I worked with a bunch of people from the county to create this, and I worked with Earth Sangha, mostly to get all of the plants, but I did have a lot of people donate,” Natalie said.
Apart from beautifying the station, it will also have a positive impact on the environment by providing a place for pollinators, such as butterflies, hummingbirds and importantly, bees. “The bees are everything to us. Without bees, we wouldn’t have half of the things we have now. We’d be unhealthy,” explained Natalie.
The addition will be apparent to people driving by the station, Captain Carl Ericson of station 26 explained. He believes it was a very good project not just for the aesthetics of the fire station but also for the environment.
This article was written by Staff Writer Patricia Keitz.
