Girl Scouts honor former troop member

Thursday, Oct. 6, 2005

Click here to enlarge this photo Barbara L. Salisbury⁄The Gazette University Park Brownie Troop 4368 Mei-Mei Luhr (from left), 8, co-leader Juanita Morton, Shantel Morton, 8, and Kelsey Joyce, 8, dedicate a tree Saturday at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center for Zoe Falkenberg, a member of their troop who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. Click here to enlarge this photo Barbara L. Salisbury⁄The Gazette Jeannie Sutherland (left), 12, of College Park, Ellen Baugher,10, of University Park and Katherine Dudinsky, 12, of University Park pick potatoes Saturday out of a field at the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center as part of the 2005 All Stars Harvest for the Hungry.

Brownies from University Park marched silently through the circle carrying miniature American flags and a bronze plaque for a member of their troop now gone.

Zoe Falkenberg, 8, of University Park, a ‘‘caring and independent Girl Scout” as her troop leader remembered, died on Sept. 11, 2001, in the terrorist attacks on the nation.

The girls were there to remember their former troop member by dedicating a tree and then spending the day picking vegetables for the homeless in her honor.

Zoe and her family died on board American Airlines Flight 77 when it crashed into the Pentagon. The family was traveling to Australia where Zoe’s mother, Leslie Whittington, was to take a sabbatical.

Zoe joined the Girl Scouts as a Brownie when she was in first-grade and participated until her death when she was in third-grade, said Lisa Ealley service unit manager for the local area.

Ealley read a letter from Jean Flemma, Zoe’s troop leader, to the group of 610 Girl Scouts and 416 adults gathered Saturday for the tree dedication.

Ealley read about a time when Zoe brought her school supply list to a meeting in the hopes that the troop could get supplies to give to children in her class who couldn’t afford all the items.

‘‘She wanted to make the world a better place, just like you are today,” Ealley said.

The Girl Scouts and their parents who came Saturday also were part of the largest harvesting effort ever held at the research center, said Liz Reinert, operations director for Food For Others, a Fairfax-based charity that feeds the homeless.

The girls and their parents harvested about 15 tons of tomatoes, potatoes and cooking pumpkins Saturday from the fields. BARC grows the crops for agricultural experimentation, and likes for groups pick up the food and donate it to the needy, said John N. Van de Vaarst, a U.S. Department of Agriculture director who worked with the Girl Scouts Saturday.

The food was delivered fresh to homeless shelters all over the region Saturday, Reinert said.

‘‘Our clients love the produce,” she said.

The Brownies from Zoe’s troop encircled the small tree, donated by an Alexandria Service Unit, on the BARC grounds, and pressed their small flags into the earth around it.

Then the Girl Scouts rang a solitary bell for each year of Zoe’s life before beginning the harvest. The bell rang only eight times.

E-mail Meghan Mullan at mmullan@gazette.net.