For Halloween this year, sisters Letty and Payton Lockhart of Spring Hill plan to trick or treat as DC supervillain Harley Quinn and Dorothy Gale from The Wizard of Oz, respectively. Yet despite their slightly divergent tastes in Halloween costumes, the sisters share a common goal: doing their part to save the environment, via the Happy Halloween! community service project. “Hello, our names are Letty and Payton. We are Brownie Girl Scouts,” reads a flier and open letter to the Hernando County community written by Payton, 8, and Letty, 7, representatives of Girl Scout Troop number 4436. “We are working on a community service project. We are collecting candy wrappers to help the environment and help reduce waste at our landfills.”
Aside from their surrounding natural environment, mom Brittany Lockhart says that this campaign is geared toward the salvation and protection of animals in the area. “They saw it online and thought it would help keep the animals safe,” said Brittany Lockhart. “They want the animals to be safe and not eat the wrappers that people do not throw away.”
In preparation for this project, the girls did their research. “It is estimated that more than 600 million pounds of candy is purchased each year for Halloween,” their letter reads. “Please help us make the world a better place by donating your plastic candy wrappers to us, and we will cycle them in the proper way.”
Candy wrappers may be dropped off Oct. 1 through Nov. 30 at Bargain City Bins, 3045 Commercial Way in Spring Hill, and Jersey Gurls Subz N More, 1371 Kass Circle in Spring Hill. This isn’t the first or last time the Lockhart sisters have done their part to help the community. Letty was acknowledged earlier this year for donating 170 pounds of food and 62 handmade sandwiches to People Helping People in Hernando County; an interfaith community established to provide food, clothing, and other basic necessities to needy individuals. “Their next project will be a pet supply drive,” said Brittany Lockhart. “That will probably be in November-December time.”
In the meantime, the dynamic duo of Payton and Letty are working to make Halloween a little less spooky for animals and the environment.
