Date: Fri 18-Apr-1997

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A11

Quick Words:

Scouts-Berlingo-Stahl-Low

Full Text:

(Girl Scout series: Chiara Berlingo, Karen & Sarah Stahl profiles, 4/18/97)

Girl Scouting's Legacy-

Scouting Can Create A Lifetime Of Lessons Learned

(with photos)

In a continuation of a series begun in the April 4 issue of The Newtown Bee ,

the following are stories of Girl Scouts past and present, in observation of

the 85th anniversary of Girl Scouting in the United States.

BY SHANNON HICKS

Chiara Berlingo, 23, is studying at Southern Connecticut State University for

her master's degree in library science. She is hoping to work in technical

services at a library - maybe even at C.H. Booth Library, where she is

currently a part-time employee - once she graduates. But while Chiara may be

studying library sciences today, she has already had a nearly complete

education elsewhere... in Girl Scouting.

Chiara has climbed the Girl Scout ladder from Brownie to Cookie Mom. A Newtown

resident and 1992 graduate of Newtown High School, she has earned Girl

Scouting's highest awards, the Silver and Gold Awards. As an active Girl

Scout, she not only put in time earning the traditional badges, patches and

pins, she also traveled to the birthplace of Girl Scouting as well as to the

country's capital, all to get a better perspective on the international

program for girls of all ages.

Other than being a leader, which she already says she hopes to do someday,

about the only thing left for Chiara to do is go through the ranks of the Girl

Scout Council, the body which governs Girl Scout troops and leaders.

Chiara joined Girl Scouts for the same reason many girls do - because a friend

had joined. Before her family moved to Newtown, the Berlingos lived in

Colorado. When she was in third grade, Chiara had a friend, Jennifer Brown,

who was a Brownie.

"I got in because Jennifer was a Brownie," Chiara said. She recalled recently

some of her Girl Scouting stories during a rare break between driving to New

Haven for classes at Southern and working at the Booth Library in Newtown.

"I wanted to hang out with her, and I got sucked into the program." In

Colorado, Chiara completed the Brownie program, then put in one year of the

Junior program before moving.

Because the timing of her family's move came during a school year, it was

difficult for Chiara to become involved with a troop midway through a year

(troops generally meet during the school year). Instead of giving up on Girl

Scouting, however, she decided to work "on a whole mess of patches" on her

own, completing the Junior program.

When she joined her first Newtown troop as a Cadette in sixth grade, her

leader, Esther Nichols, went over the requirements for each badge Chiara had

worked on, and approved the work the industrious youngster had completed.

Among the patches Chiara had earned on her own were Wild Life, Horse Lover,

Horseback Rider, Popular Arts, Child Care, Hobbies & Crafts and Bicycling.

In eighth grade, Chiara's Cadette troop spent their week of April vacation in

Savannah, Ga., visiting the Juliet Gordon Low Birthplace. It was Mrs Low who

introduced Girl Scouting to America in 1912. Her home has become a monument

for Girl Scouts across the country.

"The house is an average turn-of-the-century building, with a lot of antiques

in it," she said. "We dressed in costumes and had tea, then got tiles to

paint, which was something they did at the time. They had you do crafty things

like that when you visit."

A few months later, Chiara was part of a small group that went to Washington,

D.C., to take part in a Leadership in America program sponsored by the Girl

Scouts of America.

In 1991, Chiara invited Scouts from across the Southwestern Connecticut

Council's region to submit recipes for a book she would publish. With the

subsequent publication of her Council Camping Handbook , she earned the

prestigious Gold Award. The book is a compilation of recipes both serious

(Baked Apples, Hobo Potatoes) and silly (Elephant Soup, Mystery Meal), from

appetizers and snacks to dessert. Another section, "Helpful Hints and

Reminders," included everything from metric to avoirdupois (feet, inches,

ounces) conversion, to Scouting songs.

Copies were sold for $5 each, with the money benefitting the Council. The book

can still be purchased at Newtown's library.

Three years prior to that, she and fellow Girl Scout Jeannine DiGennaro put

together a complete history of Girl Scouting in Newtown. Although the book was

never published, by doing the research for the book and laying out the copy

for the book's presentation, it was enough for the girls to earn their Silver

Awards.

Chiara has been a Cookie Mom for Girl Scouts, but has not been a leader yet.

She participated in an Indian Day program at Putnam Park in Redding in May

1990, where girls of all ages were invited to partake in different activities.

Chiara spent the day working with Daisy Scouts.

As a Senior Girl Scout of Troop 766, with Jeannine DiGennaro, she was a

leader's assistant for a Brownie troop in 1992. Chiara and Jeannine

volunteered to set up activity stations to teach basic camping skills to the

younger girls, who were on their first camping experience at Newtown's Camp

Cullens.

Although not an active Girl Scout today - studies and work take up much of her

time - don't count Chiara out of the Girl Scouting picture.

"I'd like to be a leader some day," she says. "I think it would be neat,

especially if I have daughters.

"A lot of things I have learned are intangible, like getting along with

people. It's hard to say if it was Girl Scouting where I learned everything,

but it certainly helped. I always thought Girl Scouting was fun."

Following In Mom's Footsteps

Sarah Stahl has her future all planned out.

At age six, she already knows who her best friend will be for the rest of her

life. Sarah is going to take after her mom, she says. After all, her mother,

Karen Stahl, became a Girl Scout when she was little and it was her best

friend's mother who was the leader of her mom's troop.

Today it is Sarah whose mom is a Girl Scout leader, and Sarah's best friend,

Colleen, is in her troop. Mom has kept in touch with her old Girl Scout leader

- Carol Bollinger - and is still very close to her childhood best friend,

Laura Bollinger.

"That's how it's going to be with me and Colleen," Sarah says confidently. "We

were friends in kindergarten and first grade, and now we're Girl Scouts

together."

Sarah is a first grade student at Head O' Meadow School, and a Brownie in

Troop 109. Karen Stahl is a co-leader of the troop, along with Claudia Kraich,

which meets every other Thursday at the school. This is Sarah's first year as

a Brownie, her second involved in Girl Scouting; she was a Daisy last year.

Eleven other girls are also in Troop 109, one of two first-grade troops that

meet at the school.

Earlier this year, Troop 109 was involved in a national survey sent out by

Girl Scouts of America. The girls were the only Fairfield County first graders

involved in the survey, which was sent out to leaders and their Scouts at the

end of February.

"There were no right, and no wrong answers," Karen Stahl explained. "GSA just

wanted to know what we thought about the program."

"How we like Girl Scouts," Sarah offers.

Karen Stahl was a Girl Scout for 11 years, beginning with Brownie and working

right through to the Senior level. In comparing Girl Scouting while she was a

Scout to what the program focuses on today, she sees a huge difference.

"Today, the girls are looking at and exploring their own opportunities. There

is so much more open to the girls, you can be anything you want," she said.

"Back then, there were these Homemaker and Hostess badges.

"These are funny to look back at now. I mean, get real!"

Karen was a leader of a Junior troop when she and her husband were living in

Arizona, during their college years. When her husband became involved with Boy

Scouting, Karen reestablished her Girl Scouting life by becoming an assistant

Brownie leader.

After moving to and living in Indiana for three years, Karen and her husband,

along with their young children, moved to Newtown in 1993. She returned to her

Girl Scout roots again last year, this time becoming a Daisy co-leader.

"They put you through a lot of training at the beginning," Karen said. "And

every time you switch [levels], there is more." Karen updated her CPR training

last summer through the Newtown Ambulance Association; next up will be outdoor

training, so she can guide the girls to cook outdoors, have fires, and take

overnight trips.

While training is a requisite for all leaders, Karen feels Girl Scouting while

she was younger taught her a lot about life.

"I learned a lot of basic skills I just take for granted now," Karen said.

"People ask me how I know these things and it's like `I don't know, I just

do.'

"I learned a lot from Girl Scouting."

Sarah couldn't wait to become a Girl Scout. With two older brothers, both of

whom were Boy Scouts, and her father again working with Boy Scouts in Newtown,

it felt like an eternity before she was old enough to be a Daisy Scout.

"It got boring, just going to Boy Scout meetings, and me not being a Girl

Scout," she said.

Sarah is very proud to be seen in her uniform; she waited long enough to be

allowed the honor of wearing it. The Stahl family attends Newtown United

Methodist Church, which sponsors Girl Scout Sundays and Boy Scout Sundays from

time to time, giving Sarah another occasion to be seen in her outfit.

Sarah is already learning a lot through Girl Scouting. Her mother enjoys being

a leader of the girls, she says, because the activities the girls do are so

enjoyable, "the girls don't even realize they're learning as they go."

Already, Sarah and her troop have made friends, they have earned their first

cookie patches, learned basics about Girl Scouting's history, learned the Girl

Scout handshake and Friendship Squeeze, and have done the very traditional

Girl Scout activity of making sit-upons. These are all things the girls have

consciously done.

Along with these projects, however, the troop has earned patches in Music,

Around the World (during which time they studied Peru), and recently completed

their Caring & Sharing Try-It patches. Things like sharing, or pieces of

music, or bits of information about a foreign country, are the kinds of things

the girls will remember for the rest of their lives, and will recall without

second thought.

Of course, Sarah already knows how to be a good friend, and how to keep one.

If you ask her, it was her mom and Girl Scouting that taught her about that.

Next week: Girl Scout leaders and their Scouts; more mother-daughter stories.