Date: Fri 12-Mar-1999

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Quick Words:

Girl-Scouts-Brownies

Full Text:

Newtown Girls Join Scouts Across The Country In Celebrating Nat'l Girl Scout

Week

(with cuts)

BY SHANNON HICKS

Newtown Girl Scouts of all levels joined Girl Scouts around the world this

week in a celebration of Girl Scout Week and Be Your Best Day. Newtown has

troops that run from the youngest Daisies (kindergarteners) to their older

counterparts the Brownies (grades 1-3), Juniors (grades 4-6), Cadettes (grades

6-8) and Seniors (high school).

Girl Scout Week this year is March 7-13. Each year, Scouts celebrate the

beginning of the Girl Scout Movement in the United States, which began on

March 12, 1912. That was the day Juliette Gordon Low invited 24 girls to join

her at the Louise Porter Home in Savannah for tea and to talk about Scouting

for Girls. Two troops (which were first called "patrols") were formed at that

meeting; Daisy Gordon, Mrs Low's niece, was the first registered member.

From that quiet beginning, Girl Scouts USA has now grown into the world's

largest organization for girls, with over 2.5 members enrolled.

(While Juliette Gordon Low is credited with the founding of Girl Scouts of

America, it is important to know Mrs Low actually adapted a program, called

British Girl Guides, which in turn was an offspring of Boy Scouts.)

The first nationwide Girl Scout Week was celebrated in 1919, in conjunction

with the birthday of founder Juliette Low, on October 31. In 1954, the event

was officially changed to the week of March 12.

Scouts celebrated the fifth annual Be Your Best Day on Tuesday, March 9. Three

million scouts across the country called on their friends and neighbors to

help them "be your best."

Girl Scout Week, Newtown-Style

Newtown Scouts led the charge locally with a number of activities around the

town. Girl Scout Week may have opened on Sunday, but First Selectman Herb

Rosenthal made the observation official with a proclamation last week. On

Tuesday, March 2, Mr Rosenthal welcomed five Newtown Girl Scouts into Edmond

Town Hall, where he presented the girls with a proclamation announcing Girl

Scout Week in Newtown.

On Sunday, March 7, The Showtime Puppeteers, a/k/a the girls of Troop 656,

presented a puppet show they had been working on where they had transformed

many of their favorite children's stories into a puppet show for their peers.

The puppeteers made their debut presentation when they presented two of these

stories, The Town Mouse and The Country Mouse and The Prince and The Dragon ,

at C.H. Booth Library.

The performance was supplemented by jokes and a musical intermission, and was

a great hit with all the young children and their parents who trooped out in

Sunday afternoon's chilly temperatures.

On Monday afternoon, Brownie Troop 335 (Head O'Meadow School) assembled tray

favors for recipients of Meals on Wheels. Brownie Troop 820 (Hawley School)

decided to do two activities as a group this year, so their Monday afternoon

meeting was also busy this week. The girls put together an Easter basket for a

family of five that was arranged through Newtown Senior Center, and then the

Scouts assembled snow globes for the residents of Ashlar of Newtown.

The four girls, who are Junior Troop 239 (Montessori School), baked cookies

during their Monday afternoon meeting, which were then delivered to the

Dorothy Day shelter/soup kitchen in Danbury on Tuesday morning.

On Tuesday morning, the six Girl Scout troops at Middle Gate School once again

worked as a large team on a service project for Newtown's FAITH Food Pantry.

Daisy Troop 592, Brownie Troops 809, 890 and 113, and Junior Troops 134 and

236 all invited their classmates and teachers/faculty members to participate

in a paper goods/toiletries drive.

This was the fifth year Middle Gate scouts offered the challenge. Newtown's Be

Your Best Day coordinator Karen Kaechele said Tuesday night the result was

"outstanding once again.

"It went really well," Mrs Kaechele reiterated Wednesday morning. "There are

still donations coming in, so we will have another delivery on Thursday. They

are always pleased with donations like these because you can't purchase

toiletries -- shampoo, toilet paper, Kleenex, etc. -- with food stamps. So

these donations are always a big help."

Troop 127, Brownies at Sandy Hook School, collected donations during their

meeting on Tuesday afternoon to go to FAITH Food Pantry. Brownie Troop 1135,

at Head O'Meadow School, did something similar this week. The girls filled a

Friendship Basket with goodies and then presented the collection to their

school helpers.

On Wednesday night, nearly 20 of Newtown's Girl Scout troops participated in a

Thinking Day program at the high school. During the evening program, girls

were invited to dress in costumes similar to what troops around the world

might be wearing, consider what their international counterparts might be

doing this week, and also present skits concerning Girl Scouts and their

importance to the community.

Continuing Service

To Their Community

While Girl Scouts may be dedicated a little more than usual this week to

presenting special events and community service projects for Girl Scout Week,

troops are always thinking about their community around them. Not all of

Newtown's Girl Scout troops will be doing their Girl Scout Week projects this

week.

Brownie Troop 78, third graders at Sandy Hook School, planned two activities

to observe Girl Scout Week. Earlier this month, the girls made napkin holders

with wooden Easter decorations glued onto them for the residents at Ashlar of

Newtown. On March 22, the troop will be collecting for a family of three. An

Easter basket will be presented to the family, which was arranged through

FAITH Food Pantry, on March 27.

Also earlier this month, the girls in Brownie Troop 855 shared their

friendship when they baked cookies for a friend.

The Brownies in Troop 204 (Hawley School) also shared themselves with a friend

earlier this year. When troop co-leader Cathy Brophy heard of a Newtown family

whose mother had died shortly after the birth of her youngest baby, Mrs Brophy

thought immediately of the baby.

"Everyone was fixing meals and doing things for the family as a whole, but as

a mother myself, I also thought of the baby," Mrs Brophy explained. "I sat

down with the girls in the troop and explained to them that a baby has

different nutritional needs than its parents and even older brothers and

sisters, and maybe we could arrange for some baby food for the newborn."

The result was a number of donations by the individual Brownies. Girls donated

their allowances and candy/snack money for a week in order to collect enough

money to purchase baby food for one of Newtown's youngest residents.

Junior Troop 157 had planned to be out along Scudder Road on March 4, picking

up discarded trash from errant drivers, but the inclement weather that

afternoon forced the troop to reschedule its Be Your Best activity.

The Junior Troop 143, fifth grade girls at Hawley School, recently performed

at Ashlar of Newtown. A number of the girls are members of the string section,

or the band at their school, and so the scouts offered a performance for the

residents of Ashlar.

The Cadettes in Troop 382 (Newtown Middle School) took on The Gift of Caring

during the Girl Scout Cookie Sales season. Earlier this year, while making

their rounds to sell Girl Scout cookies, these girls asked those who were

purchasing cookies to consider purchasing an extra box that would be given to

Newtown's FAITH Food Pantry on behalf of the troop.

Junior Troop 1114, also from Hawley School, has an ongoing project. The girls

have a list of things they are to work on for the new few weeks, including

collecting canned and dry good to be donated to FAITH Food Pantry, donating

one or two books each to C.H. Booth Library, and doing good deeds around their

home for family members.

Troop 1114 has also been working on a service project for the past few years,

along with a Sandy Hook School Brownie troop, where the girls make touch books

for blind preschools students. The books are given to the Connecticut Board of

Education For The Blind, which then presents the books to appropriate children

around the state.

Junior Girl Scout Troop 157 from Head O'Meadow School will put their best feet

forward in April, even though Girl Scout Week falls in March. The troop has

arranged, through Newtown Congregational Church, to make 100 peanut butter

sandwiches for the Dorothy Day Soup Kitchen in Danbury.~

Closure On Sunday

To conclude this week's activities, over 300 girls are registered to take part

in a celebration at Edmond Town Hall on Sunday, March 14. Cadette Girl Scouts

will be leading the younger Daisy, Brownie and Junior Girl Scouts in songs,

games and crafts. The afternoon will close with an ice cream sundae social.

"This is great," said Be Your Best Day coordinator Karen Kaechele last week.

"This is a wonderful event for Girl Scouts of all ages, and an opportunity for

the girls to show the community that Girl Scouts is about a lot more than

selling cookies."