Sabrina Boccuzzi unveiled the library's new Seed Bank on May 5 to a roomful of supporters. She created the Seed Bank for her Girl Scout Gold Award project.

The grand opening of the Seed Bank at C.H. Booth Library also marked months of effort for Sabrina, who began working on the project in June of 2017, when former Young Adult Librarian Kim Weber, who has since retired, shared the idea of creating a seed bank with Sabrina.

As previously reported in The Bee, the Seed Bank allows people to sign out seeds to use. After being planted, people will be asked to collect seeds from the plants to return to the library. Directions on how to collect the seeds are available with the seeds when they are taken out from the Seed Bank. According to Sabrina, the seeds are "all natural."

To complete her Gold Award, Sabrina had to complete a minimum of 80 hours of work on the project, and the project had to focus on an issue within the community. She mentored with Susan Skerrett of the Darien Library and her Girl Scout advisor was Elizabeth Roth of Cheshire.

Looking at her roomful of family and friends on May 5, Sabrina thanked her uncle, Sal Boccuzzi, for supplying her with an old library catalog to repurpose for the Seed Bank. She also thanked her family for supporting her.

"It's been an amazing journey," said Sabrina.

The new Seed Bank is situated near the library's cafe area.

According to Sabrina's mother Cynthia Boccuzzi, Sabrina is a fourth generation Girl Scout.

"My mother-in-laws' mother, Marie Fezer, was one of the first Girl Scouts in the 1920s, and my mother-in-law, Vicki Boccuzzi, was a Girl Scout, who also received a gold award; but back then it was called a curved bar," Ms Boccuzzi wrote in an e-mail, adding that Sabrina's aunt, Marie Boccuzzi, is also a Girl Scout.

C.H. Booth Library Assistant Director Beryl Harrison, who has been working with Sabrina to coordinate the project with the library, was also present for the unveiling.

"We're happy to have it here," Ms Harrison said. "We think it is going to be very popular."