Girl Scouts

I've been a Girl Scout leader for several years now.  I took over when our old troop leader said that she didn't want to do it anymore, and refused to sign the paperwork to be a leader for another year.  It looked as if our troop was going to fold, so I agreed to become the leader.

Over the years, the troop has gone from being led by one person to more of a co-op arrangement.  All of the parents have signed on as Assistant Leaders, and we all take responsibility for leading meetings and getting things accomplished.

As the girls grew into high school, the challenge of being leaders has been easier than we expected.  High school is the age of girl led programming.  In short, the girls take over the meetings.  They decide what they want to do next, and our job is to help them find the resources to reach their goals.

It's been wonderful watching them grow, and take on responsibilities and reach their goals.

When we started our Bronze Award, it was a project initiated by our then-leader.  The girls initiated a wonderful project, and earned their Bronze Award.  They were in 6th grade, and they were unstoppable.

Predictably, we lost a few girls through middle school.  The programming changed, and even worse, the grade levels changed.  Our girls were caught in the middle of the transition.  They became Cadettes at the end of their 6th grade year, and that was when the new age guidelines were handed down from national. Previously, Cadettes were in 7th, 8th, and 9th grades.  Now, they were to be in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades.  This presented a huge challenge for us.  Two years to complete the requirements for the Silver Award, find a project, and complete said project.

We all quailed at the prospect.  We went to the first Silver Award meeting we could find held by our council, and I was almost in tears.  Since that time, Girl Scouts has changed the Silver Award requirement to the completion of a Journey.  At that time, there was a long list of badges, experiences, leadership demands, and community service requirements to be met. 

I still remember that meeting with the parents and the girls as we looked at the requirements.  The girls were amazing.  "We are going to do this."  They said.  "Nothing will stop us." 

It was at this point that we became a co-op troop.  Each parent took a requirement, and agreed to research it.  We as parents then sat down and figured out the mechanics of the requirement, and the parent who researched that requirement was the one who presented it to the girls, arranged the trips, and followed it through to it's conclusion.

Once we finished the requirements, we had the girls sit down and research possibilities for projects.  They presented their ideas, voted on suggestions, and chose Project Linus.  Much as the parents had done, assigning roles to meet the badge qualifications, the girls sat down and divided up the responsibilities for funding, researching, etc. 

To this day, I am still confounded by the fact that it took us less than a year to finish this.  I won't go into all of the details here, but I will say that the girls completed 80 blankets for Project Linus.  They even learned how to sew in the process - a skill that is no longer taught in the public schools!

They bridged on to Seniors, and began their Senior Journey.  We finished that two years ago, and the girls began to look for Gold Award projects.  Keep in mind, Gold Award projects are individual projects, and they must have a long lasting impact on the community.  Projects must be found, and project proposals submitted to council and approved by council before work can begin on them.

Now, fast forward to this past summer.  We still have 5 girls in our troop.  They are in 11th grade.
All 5 have submitted proposals and had them approved by council.

The first project went off without a hitch in late July. 

Today is the second project.   

Believe it or not, we have at least one, if not two, projects scheduled to happen every month from now until December.

What continues to amaze me most of all is that these girls are all in High School.  They are all in 11th grade.  And they all choose to remain in Girl Scouting.  Even with the commitments to sports, band, drama, friends, and school work, these girls are still involved in Girl Scouting.  They are all honor roll students.  To me, this is unbelievable.  When I took over this troop, I honestly never expected it to last more than a year.  And here we are, years later.  Unbelievable.

I am so very, very proud of all of these girls.  They are AMAZING!!!

And the other parents in this troop who have stepped up and helped to keep our troop running and help the girls achieve their dreams?  They've done it all while balancing careers, other commitments, other children, cancer treatments, health problems, and the sickness of their own parents?

They are PHENOMENAL.

None of this could have happened without the combined efforts of us all. 

It really does take a village.