Girl Scout Daisies and Girl Scout Brownies:

As Girl Scout Daisies and Girl Scout Brownies we did lots of traditional activities from learning personal safety and first aid to singing and outdoor skills. Thinking Day was a highlight every year, and we presented several countries at our annual service unit celebrations – Belgium, South Africa, and Japan to name a few. We sold cookies by the truckload, and we admit that the little kid prizes really did motivate us.  As city girls, it was extra fun when we got our selves lost in a corn maze (on purpose, we swore) as we did a Girl Scout trivia scavenger hunt.

Camping quickly became a huge success, and we’ve been doing it annually ever since. We remember the first time we planned the menu ourselves and somehow having mango as our fruit became an obsession, even though half the troop had never tasted mangoes!  The “Bananas? No, I said Bandannas” skit is a regular, messy, sticky, favorite, and we smile that we spoiled ourselves with waffles at a camp that didn’t have any running water for miles.  We admit that we’ll refuse to cut our hair for 6 months before a trip, just so we can wear it in braids at camp.  Best of all, we have a troop rule that you can stay up as late as you want around the campfire - as long as you are actively singing.  The minute you start chatting or get distracted, you have to go to bed.  We’ve all gotten good at singing for hours!

Girl Scout Juniors:

The troop changed over time as new girls were added and others left, but the drive and laughter just kept coming.   There was no doubt we’d all earn our Bronze Award.  Of course outdoor skills and camping had to figure into it because that was our specialty.  We decided to adopt two troops that didn’t have the chance to camp, teach them outdoor skills at several meetings during the school year and then take them camping overnight.  We took them letter-boxing, we cooked out with them, and then at the end of the year, we took them camping which was a real highlight for them - and for us!

One of our favorite places to camp is a nearby park that used to have a natural lake.

The lake was filled-in years ago and became a large baseball diamond and open space.  Many nights, if you stay up late enough, mist will rise where the lake used to be. We call it the ghost lake, and we love to run through the mist in the moonlight.

For some reason it’s nearly impossible to do this while being quiet, but there’s another rule:  If you are going to run through the ghost lake in the dark then you have to do it in silence and with a buddy!  (Our leader goes with us when we do this and shushes us the whole time.)  Sometimes we have to stay up (singing) until past midnight to see the ghost lake.  Sometimes it’s just too dry, and the lake doesn’t appear.  Note: If you are ever going to run through a ghost lake, be sure you do it away from the tent stakes!

Girl Scout Cadettes:

We joined a west coast tradition and traveled to San Francisco to bridge from Girl Scout Juniors to Girl Scout Cadettes on the Golden Gate Bridge with 5,000 other scouts.  In our typical fashion, we brought the whole troop, all the moms and a guitar.  We sang and danced our way across to the song Jamie Boy.1.7 miles later we were finally Girl Scout Cadettes! 

Our service unit hosts a summer Twilight Camp for a week with an overnight each year, and we have been going ever since kindergarten.  Now we volunteer at Twilight Camp as staff.  We’re unit staff, skills leaders, kitchen staff, song-leaders and headquarters staff.  It’s great working with the younger girls and great having a week together outdoors.There was a moment when we realized that we were no longer looking up to the older girls and dreaming of becoming them one day, because we had become the older girls and the younger ones were looking up to us!  Living in California we don’t worry about rain at Twilight Camp, but we are always careful to be sure that the park has disabled the sprinklers for our overnight, because we don’t bring rain gear (a lesson learned the, ahem, wet way!) Of course we extend our rule of you can stay up as late as you want - as long as you are actively singing to the rest of the campers as well.Sometimes our late night singers number over 100!  Every year many of us are still singing long past midnight!

Our Silver Award “Hunger in our Community and in our World” was a year-long project that involved several food drives, education programs, research and collaboration with a number of food banks and food pantries.  It ended with an encampment for 350 other scouts to teach them about hunger and how to address hunger.  

Every Girl Scout exceeded the minimum requirement of 40 hours with one Cadette, Caitlyn, working nearly 200 hours on the project!   In total we raised $8,000 that was donated to charities that address hunger – locally and internationally. 

During our encampment we held a hunger “feast” in which each girl played the part of a hungry person somewhere in the world.  They thought they were going to dinner but instead were given a card with a story and a hunger grouping. Some would get no food.  Some would get only rice.  Some would receive a basic meal, and some would have more than they knew what to do with.  There was shock and disbelief, but the most touching moment was when a Girl Scout who had been designated as “rice only” got up and shared her small portion with another Girl Scout who was told she would not be eating.  From there many others began to share what they had with others who had less.  As a group we all came to realize how unequal the distribution of food is in our world and how important cooperation is to addressing that need.

Several years ago we attended a Gold Award Ceremony, and one of the Gold recipients had raised a guide dog for the blind and created an education/awareness program about guide dogs.  Immediately Emily wanted to raise a guide dog.  She volunteered for Guide Dogs of America, and today the first dog she raised, Jet, is guiding a woman who lives in Seattle.  She is now raising her second guide dog, Jenga.  Our Service Unit recognized Emily’s work at our annual awards in 2009.  Inspired by what Emily had done, another troop member, Sabina, wanted to raise a guide dog, too.  She volunteered with Guide Dogs of the Desert and began raising a guide dog as well.  Today she, too, is raising her second guide dog (a black Labrador Retriever named Wizard who traveled with us to Savannah).

We met a challenge when three years ago one of our leaders' family moved from California to Nevada, but that didn't stop us.  We still hold monthly meetings - generally our Nevada leader and her daughter come to California, but we've also gone up to Las Vegas for events there too!  While in Nevada we met with the CEO of the local food bank, Three Square, an organization we had worked with as part of our Silver Award.   Also while in Nevada, we volunteered with Girl Scouts of Frontier Council and sang at their annual fundraiser “Desert Before Dinner.”  Who would have ever guessed Girl Scouting would take us to perform on a stage in a casino in Las Vegas!?

Savannah and the Birthplace:

Savannah planning took up much of this year.  We’d been talking about Savannah since we were Girl Scout Daisies, and the time had come.  Our troop president had been to Savannah with her family and had lots of great suggestions.  We began our planning and organization in the fall, researching everything from hotels to restaurants, prices, logistics, guides and tours.  As we discussed our plans, our group began to grow from just our troop to include not only our moms, but also a leader from another troop and her daughter as well as the younger sister of one of our troop members.  A great big happy group of 22!  The week before we left for Savannah, we had an overnight, and we watched the movie “Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil” to give us a sense of the city and some of its colorful, true stories.

We flew to Savannah because we only had 4 days total for our trip.  Friday night we walked down by the river and had shrimp dinner by the water.  We stayed at the Inn at Ellis Square which was literally packed with other Girl Scouts from different states.  Saturday morning we were up early to meet the trolley we had hired for the entire day.  The trolley took us first to Laurel Grove Cemetery where Daisy and her family are buried.  We gathered around the grave and sang her several of our favorite songs, including “Girl Scouts Together” and “Peace of the River”.  Our tour in Savannah continued with lunch, a city tour, a boat tour that took us to see dolphins, a river front walk, our bridging to Girl Scout Seniors, a visit to Colonial Park Cemetery where we did a scavenger hunt, and then a ghost tour.  At 10 pm we crawled into bed exhausted, finally Girl Scout Seniors!

 On Sunday, March 7, 2010, our Girl Scout Heritage Visit reservation at the Birthplace was scheduled for a 10:45 am check in.  We expected there to be lots of waiting, but there was none.  We walked from our hotel and arrived on time with another troop.  Exactly at 10:45 the door opened, and our leaders went in to register.  Fifteen minutes later we were seated in a large orientation room with a lively guide who brought to life stories and photos of Daisy’s life and family.  Next we toured the house, seeing all the highlights we’d hoped to see from her room to that incredible banister for sliding.  The house is magnificent, and Girl Scouts are so lucky it is available to visit.  Our visit to the gift shop allowed us to stock up on patches for our uniforms and patch jackets as well as other Girl Scout loot.  Lunch was a quick hour, and we returned for our Forward March Special Interest Session. 

We selected Forward March  because it seemed to be the most active of the Special Interest Sessions  and because it seemed to provide the most history of early Girl Scouting itself.  We were not disappointed.  We all put on the dark blue old fashioned uniforms, and we laughed our way through the “setting up exercises.”  Then we requested we share an exercise of our own.  Our guide agreed.  Let me explain. 

In text speak, ROFL means to “Roll On the Floor Laughing,” and it’s become a favorite move of ours.  So there we were at the Birthplace, in the old fashioned uniforms, rolling on the floor laughing our heads off.  We marched, laughed and learned about Morse Code and Semaphore Signals.  (Since then we’ve been texting our leader in Morse Code, and she’s texting us back in Morse!)  We watched the classic movie The Golden Eaglet.  Our guide was hilarious as she brought the movie to life for us.  “Watch how many girls come out of that one tent,” she challenged us.  We counted 14 and howled. 

Throughout our visit to the Birthplace, we had a special guest with our troop.  A guide dog in training, Wizard, being trained by one of our members, was with us the entire visit.  Wizard comes to our troop meetings and events.  He goes everywhere his trainer goes just as a disabled person would, so there he was on the plane, in the hotels and restaurants, and there he was at the Birthplace!   He toured the house, he participated in Forward March, and he joined us for the pinning.  A special gift from the house to Wizard was that he, too, received a pin and became forever a “Daughter of the House.”  One day that “Daughter of the House” will guide someone with a disability.  We think Daisy would have liked that.

Of course we brought guitars with us to Savannah!   Our leader didn’t have to bring hers because now 6 girls in the troop are learning to play.  Two of our members brought their guitars, and they played “On My Honor” and “On the Loose” as we were pinned in the yard where Daisy played.   Our final moment at the Birthplace was really a special one.  We were allowed to take a moment on the front steps!  What an inspiration this visit was to us all!

Girl Scout Seniors: 

We bridged to Girl Scout Seniors in Savannah crossing one of the factors’ walks near the river as a group.  Our troop stopped, dropped and ROFL’d on the bridge as we crossed, laughing our heads off as we did.  Then each one of us picked her own individual factors’ walk to bridge independently.  We wanted it to symbolize that we are a troop, but as Girl Scout Seniors we will now walk independently to earn our Gold Awards.

Looking forward, we’re all planning to earn our Gold Awards, and several of our members have exciting Girl Scout summer programs to look forward to as well.  Emily was selected as one of two girls from our council to attend the Goddard Space Flight Center Program in Maryland in July.  In August Sabina will travel on a Destination to the Galapagos Islands.  Of course, we’ll all be volunteering again at Twilight Camp, running through the ghost lake and singing past midnight as well – traditions we just can’t miss.  The fun continues, and we hope Daisy would be proud.

As we left Savannah, we made wishes for others.  One of our wishes was that generations of other Girl Scouts would continue to visit the Juliette Gordon Low Birthplace, and we hope it comes true.