By Kate Wegleitner
Special to Brentwood News
Throughout my 11 years of Girl Scouting, I have perfected the art of persuasively entreating passersby to purchase our famed seasonal cookies: Thin Mints, Samoas, Trefoils.
More important than sales tactics, though, Girl Scouting teaches young women how to take initiative and wield their own unique brand of leadership. Having officially received my Gold Award in November of 2015, I can attest that the project, like all other endeavors in Girl Scouting, cultivates immense leadership qualities.
In September, culminating months of planning, gathering supplies, recruiting volunteers, and advertising to local community members, I launched the first aspect of my project: a bookmaking program at the reDiscover Center, a nonprofit in Culver City which promotes resource conservation and creative reuse of materials. Facilitators at the reDiscover Center are on-site after school days and on weekends to offer guidance with art projects including the use of power tools. The Center is also great for day drop-ins to craft and tinker or for larger events like children’s birthday parties (Check it out at rediscovercenter.org.)
To further give back to this important organization, I also assembled and installed a Little Free Library in the Center, providing an interactive way for kids to exchange books with one another. Thanks to generous community members, it was immediately filled with not an inch of room to spare, bursting at the seams with books of every genre. Feel free to stop by and share a book!
Throughout the multi-step process of earning the Gold Award, Girl Scouts tackle new challenges like writing and proposing a project, effectively coordinating groups of volunteers, and managing a budget and timeline, all of which are experiences with life-long benefits. On a more meaningful level, though, this project teaches a key principle of Girl Scouting: the importance of taking action in one’s community to create lasting change. From being a Daisy, Brownie, Junior, Cadette, Senior, and now Ambassador Scout, I have gained such positive values, and I strongly encourage girls of all ages to get involved with this empowering organization!
To learn more about Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles, visit www.girlscoutsla.org.
