You can ask each member of Girl Scouts what Girl Scouting is to them or why they've committed to Girl Scouts and you will get a different answer from each one. Coyote Hills thought that it was important for new and prospective families to get an idea of what it means to some of our members.
Words from:
Words from Adults:
Why am I a Girl Scout volunteer? Beeper
My husband asks me why I volunteer. Our daughters are all grown. Worse than that you've turned them into little volunteer clones.
He says you don't get paid a salary, it doesn't pay the bills. YOu are always rushing here and there and when he asks where are you going...he hears me say to be a Girl Scout Volunteer.
He doesn't understand that though at times I am exhausted and may even ask myself WHY?; what I've been paid throughout the years is something money cannot buy. I have good friends that I can count on, I get to feel young, I now I've touched many girls lives as they have also mine. I hold so many memories in my addled brain...It means so much to me even though at times I've felft I'd gone insane.
Yes the dishes don't get done, and the laundry is in piles...but what he cannot see is the love I see that is in all the girls and volunteers smiles. I haven't given of myself but instead I've gotten back. And those are some of the reasons it's meant more to me than getting paid in cash.
I want one of those! Frazzled Too
I remember a quick conversation at a Little League game with another mom that went something like - "Sure! We'd be interested in being in a Girl Scout Troop. Let me know what you need help with." Little did I know that I would soon be the leader, then adult advisor to a group of young ladies. Thirteen years later I've seen my little troop of Brownies that sometimes swelled over the years to 20 members and then in the final year of Senior Girl Scouts shrink down to 5 and I'm still volunteering, as is my adult Girl Scout daughter.
What really got me to want to stay with Girl Scouts and see my daughter and the other members of the troop through the years was our first Association Camporee. I remember seeing these wonderful Senior Girl Scouts that had spent hours and hours planning a weekend camping experience for the younger girls. They not only thought of activities for the day, but also planned evening campfire and a Scout's Own ceremony for Sunday morning before we left the camp ground. I remember these older girls standing in front of a crowd of 125 people or more, ages from first grade through adults - teaching them songs, performing skits, sharing information that we would need for the weekend...all done without a thought to the fact that they were presenting to such a large crowd and doing it all with enthusiasm and a love for what they were doing with the younger girls looking up to them and dreaming of the day they could be standing up there. I thought "How cool! I want to grow one of those!" These young ladies didn't even realize the skills that they were learning and perfecting; skills that many adults don't have mastered, and they volunteered for the opprtunity to do it and looked forward to it.
These few short paragraphs can't begin to describe the joy of watching these little girls become beautiful adults - helping them through their high school years, college decisions, Silver and Gold Award projects (we were before Bronze Awards!). We still keep in touch, through text messages and Christmas visits home from college, many of them come back to volunteer at day camp each year. We always take a few minutes to do the "remember when's"...someone fell out of the raft, the canoe tipped over, laughed so hard we cried, the sadness of folks leaving and the joys of coming together again.
I've "grown one of those" girls - in fact I grew an entire troop full!
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