Friday, September 4, 2009 9:39 PM CDT
Charleston Girl Scout friends start new lives as high school graduates
By DAWN SCHABBING, Features Writer
dschabbing@jg-tc.com
Memories.
Starting out as Daisies, and graduating through the ranks of Girl Scouts — all the way up to Ambassadors — a group of young women will always have the memories they shared and life skills they earned.
Charleston Girl Scout Troop 410 leader Melanie Mills, along with her assistants, was instrumental in leading a group from kindergarten through high school.
The girls now begin another phase of life.
Mills began as an assistant to Charleston Troop 14 in 1993, when her daughter joined Girl Scouts. Two years later, at the beckoning of her younger daughter, she formed Troop 410 and carried those kindergartners into adulthood.
It began with 19 scouts and ended with seven high schoolers who stayed together as a troop until this past June: Lauren McKee, Kerri Brachear, Stacia Macy, Shanna May Hildebrand, Hannah Canivez, Sarah Mason and Kayla Speer.
Traditions the girls have shared include April Fools, Harvest Frolic, family picnic, Thinking Day, Backpack Project, Adopt a Park, camping, holiday baking and slumber parties.
Mills said she grew up as a Girl Scout in Toledo, Ohio, and enjoyed her experiences, but it ended when the group disbanded when she was in eighth grade.
Mills had a great mentor who led her group in Ohio — her mother.
“Retaining the older girls is a big issue nationally for the Girl Scouts. It’s part of the reason the Studio 2B program was started (for girls age 11-17), which my girls were among the first to join,” she said.
Mills credits many: her assistant leaders, Cathy Brachear and Darla Chouinard; Gail Mason, who served as “cookie mom” for the cookie sales fundraisers each year; and many parents. The troop was sponsored by the Charleston Rotary Club.
“Part of the reason I was able to focus on organizing the girls was because I had such great support from troop families. I knew I would burn out quickly without help,” Mills said.
Assistant leader Chouinard of Charleston has volunteered with Girl Scouts for years, and said Mills has a knack with the girls.
“Melanie was a really fun leader who involved her girls in regularly scheduled events, and she kept them involved longer than most leaders can keep a group of girls active,” she said.
Earning badges for repairing things, building things, cooking, math skills, technology skills, adventures, global awareness and communication was only a part of scouting.
Many projects involved community service, sometimes joining forces with other troops or civic groups, such as Lincoln Log Cabin, Women Connected, Toys for Tots, shoes for Iraqi children, and more. The troop shipped several hundred pounds of shoes to Iraqi children.
The girls earned the U.S. Presidential Gold Award for their volunteer hours that year. Now, they’ve graduated high school and have started new phases, independently.
Speer, 18, of Westfield is a student at Lake Land College.
“We always knew we could count on each other — inside and outside of Girl Scouts,” she said. “I learned that you can never be anyone else. You have to be yourself. You’ll have many more friends than you did when you were trying to be like someone else. Don’t try to be who you are not.”
Brachear, 18, of Ashmore is a freshman at Eastern Illinois University majoring in family and consumer science. She said her experiences in Girl Scouts were beneficial in many ways.
“It helped me think about the community, and how we need to keep it and make it a clean place to live. It helped me think about getting along with people you just met,” she said.
And for her, scouting contributed to her gaining new friendships, landing a job, and knowing how to get along with co-workers.
If she has a daughter some day, Brachear hopes to offer her the same “great experiences.”
McKee, 18, of Charleston said she had a heads up, since her mom was the leader since they were 5 years old.
“I always knew what was going on (in advance) for our meetings, and was able the help come up with some of the fun ideas for the things we did.”
Mills noted that the girls continued the “Try Its” philosophy they learned about as Brownies. This helped each girl experience things they may not otherwise consider: new foods, new hobbies, new cultures, new places to visit.
And it appears they did it all.
“We made food together for most of our meetings during high school. This established a good tradition of enjoying conversation while preparing dinner,” Mills said. “They’re prepared to make more than hot dogs as they live on their own.”
She said the girls had the privilege of learning about other cultures and foods that they might not intend to try, as some Rotary exchange students joined them during the years.
They traveled by car, train, cab, bus and air. Some of the locations were: Turkey Run; Walnut Point campground; Fox Ridge; McCormick’s Creek; Chicago; Garden of the Gods; Cave-In Rock; and Savannah, Ga.
At the end of their senior year, six of the seven girls vacationed in Port Charlotte, Fla., the first week of June. Although this officially ended their troop activities, Mills hopes to round them up now and then.
“Being a scout leader is a big job, but it is very rewarding to watch the girls grow up and know that you’ve contributed a little to their girlhood-giggle memories, life skills development, community service orientation, and friendships,” Mills said.
“They laugh a lot when they are together,” she said. “I will miss the hum of their voices, interrupted by laughter that filled my house on meeting nights.”
“Girlfriends are such an important part of women’s lives,” she added. “Scouting promotes relationships that can last a lifetime, for the girls and for the leaders.”
Contact Dawn Schabbing at dschabbing@jg-tc.com or 238-6864.
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