Local students who are interested in joining Girl Scouts will have the opportunity to learn more about the organization at the end of the month at the Sadye Gibbs Martin Community Center.
Students interested in becoming a Girl Scout are invited out to a recruitment event on Sept. 28 that will connect families to local troops.
The Plant City Strawberry Girl Scouts are hosting the event from 6 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the Sadye Gibbs Martin Community Center, 302 S. Maryland Ave. Parents and caregivers are invited to bring their child and learn all about the local organizations.
“We are having a Girl Scout information night and recruitment event,” Courtney Paat, recruitment coordinator for the Strawberry Girl Scouts, said. “This is normally something that happens in individual schools, but we can’t get on campus because of the pandemic so rather than doing individual school events we are doing a community wide information and recruitment night at the community center. Parents can come and learn more about Girl Scouts and what we do in the community and get their questions answered.”
Paat said the Girl Scouts typically follow the traditional school year. Established troops have already begun meeting and following the event at the end of the month the interested girls will be grouped off according to their age and new troops will form.
There are already many events scheduled for the upcoming year including many community service projects, a United Food Bank fundraiser, a valentine’s for veterans event, a pretty in pink breast cancer awareness event, a Halloween dance, Christmas caroling, a spring community picnic and field day, a Mother’s Day event, a Meals on Wheels fundraiser and an Earth Day event with the Plant City Commons Community Garden.
On top of their community events the individual troops will be focusing on badges, which are based off of life skills and building skillsets like leadership qualities and financial management. There is also a large focus on outdoor adventures, like camping, where the scouts get to learn about being outside. Paat joked that after being behind a computer for the past year and a half this will be a long-anticipated break for most of the young scouts.
Older scouts will focus on obtaining the highest awards — gold, silver and bronze — and can use the scouts as a way to log community service hours for Bright Futures Scholarship. Paat said that Girl Scouts focuses on “building girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place.” She said the hope is many families will come out to learn more about the organization, which started more than 100 years ago in Savannah, Georgia.
“With everything that’s been happening girls need to get back outside, they need to be back with their peers,” Paat said. “One thing that Girl Scouts says is it’s a leadership program specifically for girls. All the skills, badges, activities are written specifically with girls in mind. This is an opportunity for students to get back out there and get connected with their peers, build that collaboration and friendships and through the activities learn the skills they’ll need moving forward in their lives.”
The event is open to all girls from Kindergarten to 12th grade in the Plant City area. New troops will be formed following the event and the organization is looking for new members as well as parent volunteers. For more information and to RSVP head to the Plant City Strawberry Girl Scouts Facebook page. You can also head to gswcf.org/join or call 1-800-881-GIRL.
