Series that features tenants of the Clear Lake Area Community Center.
Clear Lake Girl Scouts -- Far more than Spring Cookie Sales
by Muriel Nelson
The Girl Scout cookie campaign may be long over for this year, but your local troops remain busy with activities to learn new skills, earn badges, and have fun. The Girl Scouts organization is geared to provide opportunities to its members to make new friends while learning new abilities and grooming their self-esteem. Moreover, the scouts learn how to be positive members of their communities by accomplishing service projects and other troop activities.
Girl Scouts is open to girls from kindergarten through high school. Clear Lake currently has two troops of girls who come from both Clear Lake and Clayton. The troops are based on participant age, that is, the Juniors Troop is for elementary-aged girls and the Seniors troop is for older Girl Scouts. Troop leader April Rist, indicated the troops membership can be modified or expanded as more girls join. This will ensure that activities are meaningful and appropriate to the different age groups. Currently, the Juniors hold their meetings every month at the high school and the older troop meets in the Girl Scouts’ suite at the community center. Emily Larson helps lead the Junior Troop and Jamie Rivers assists with the Senior Troop.
April stated that Clear Lake has “girl-led” troops. By that, she means that troop members make many decisions on the activities they pursue. In past years they’ve decided on fun activities such as painting pictures in the Clear Lake Park, dog sledding at the Wildlife Science Center in Stacy, MN, snow tubing at Trollhaugen, and attending Girl Scout Camp at Camp Roundelay at Minog…..just to name a few. Additionally, the older troop took a trip to Wisconsin Dells that was both fun and a learning experience because they had to make decisions when planning, budgeting, and scheduling the many activities they enjoyed.
Recruitment for new Girl Scout members usually occurs during the Clear Lake elementary school’s open house, but girls can join any time online at girlscoutsrv.org or by contacting the troop leadership. April, with 10 years of troop leadership experience, stresses that every girl who wants to join should not be held back because of financial concerns. Contact the local leadership for more information.
Not only are new scouts always welcome, but adult volunteers are also needed to help with one-time activities or to join as a troop leader. Finally, please remember there are 11 Girl Scouts who, with their leaders and hopefully some adult helpers, are looking for service projects where they can “learn while doing” in a safe, monitored environment.
If you are interested in any of the mentioned opportunities or want more information about the Clear Lake Girl Scout troops, email April at markandapril@hotmail.com and enter “Girl Scouts” as the subject.
Let’s thank our Girl Scouts and their leaders for the many good things they do for our community.
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