Living Night

My name is Avis Kennedy-Stirling. I share your love of the Wilson Ponds. You may have seen me canoeing in the thoroughfare.

I am a Girl Scout in Troop 907 in Greenville.

For my Gold Award project, Living Night, I am creating a youth education toolkit on light pollution. This global issue impacts humans and wildlife. We all need darkness for good health. I am providing education for kids about how light pollution removes essential darkness. Responsible outdoor lighting will reduce the consequences for animals including disorientation, disturbed migrations, missed reproduction and death. Kids learn that when light is used wisely, we all can see the stars and fireflies and provide animals, including humans, with necessary darkness.

At present, I am in the implementation phase. I have created a website Living-Night.com, a badge, games and a zine. I am giving presentations, distributing materials, doing star parties, and serving as an Ambassador to Dark Sky Maine as they develop their outreach programs. Since January, my outreach projects have included Girl Scouts in Katahdin Service Unit, sporting camps’ guests, the Appalachian Club President Society and Founders Society, Proctor Academy Outing Club, Moosehead Region Senior Lounge, and the Moosehead region’s Shaw Public Library. My badge features the yellow warbler and the big dipper firefly. These animals represent Maine species needing darkness.

My zine is available for viewing and available as a pdf on my website, Living-Night.com. My zine, Youth & Dark Skies, includes:

Comics for kids to learn about the animals affected by light pollution and ways for them to make a difference by using responsible outdoor lighting.

The five principles of responsible outdoor lighting illustrated in drawings and stories.

A board game, Dazzle’s Yard. Dazzle is one of the characters in my comic-zine book. Dazzle, the firefly, needs darkness to talk to his friends and needs leaf litter for his kids to grow. The objective of the game is to move the leaves to an area of the yard where his kids can live and grow. By changing the front porch light of the house to a warmer-low color instead of bright blue-white LED, the yard is firefly friendly, where Dazzle can raise his family. At the end of the game each kid will take home their own glow-in-the-dark firefly.

I am distributing my zines and patch with QR code to the website in my presentations. Also, I am providing them to libraries, Lily Bay State Park, Appalachian Mountain Club lodges, Destination Moosehead Lake, and the Appalachian Trail Welcome Center in Monson. They are available through the Dark Sky Maine Ambassador program.

Please connect with Dark Sky Maine and our local Moosehead Chapter to learn about and enjoy darkness. We hope to have star parties this summer. You are invited to join me at the Dark Sky Maine Moosehead Chapter meetings at the Shaw Public Library.

Thank you, Avis

NEWSFLASH: AVIS WILL RECEIVE HER GOLD AWARD AT THE 10 AM SERVICE ON JULY 12 AT THE UNION CHURCH. CONGRATULATIONS, AVIS