Lynn Girl Scouts adopt pet cause

LYNN – Kaelyn Jennings loves koala bears. Her bedroom walls are covered with koala bear pictures, so when she heard Australian koalas need mittens as part of their recovery from wildfire burns, she called her grandmother, Girl Scout Troop 68016 co-leader Helen Jennings.Using a bedsheet donated by troop co-leader Karen DiSessa, Kaelyn and four fellow scouts spent Tuesday afternoon cutting and stitching cloth mitts roughly the size of the Shoemaker School fourth-graders? hands.A string attached to each mitten allows veterinarians to apply medicine to the koalas? burned paws and then tie the mittens securely so that the bears cannot remove the mitts until their paws heal.?They live in a tree, they move slowly so they can?t get away from a fire,” explained troop member Ava Thurman.With about 18 mittens stitched to date, the troop – Kaelyn Jennings, Ava Thurman, Ava Barbuto, Emma Murray and Taliah Burton – plans to stitch more mitts during the next month before mailing a koala care package to the International Fund for Animal Welfare in Australia.Burton said the reason she is reaching halfway around the world with fellow troop members to help the bears is simple.?They?re soft,” Burton said.Helen Jennings and DiSessa wrote a description of the troop?s work on the bears? behalf that stresses “baby koalas are the worst casualties in the Australian bush fires.”?The babies become separated from their mothers during the fires and just sit in trees waiting to be rescued. If their paws are burned they can?t grip and are at risk for falling out of trees,” the description reads.Troop 68016 meets every Tuesday at Shoemaker, and the scouts have undertaken several community-service projects under Helen Jennings? and DiSessa?s leadership. The girls assembled Christmas care packages for three local veterans and donated care packages to homeless children last November.?This shows them not everyone is well off, and it?s a way of giving back,” DiSessa said.DiSessa and Jennings, both of Lynn, met as Sisson School first-graders and were Brownie troop members beginning in third grade. DiSessa has been involved in Girl Scouts for 25 years and Jennings has been involved in scouting off and on. She helped revive the Shoemaker troop three years ago when Kaelyn started attending Shoemaker.Emma Murray saw a koala during a Curious Creatures show and said the mittens are for a good cause.?I like helping the koalas,” she said.