by: Samantha K. Herring
Like many other Girl Scout troops, Cary Girl Scout Troop #1799 is busy this fall. The girls and their adult advisors recently traveled to Huckleberry Trail Farm in Siler City, N.C., for an overnight campout. After unloading supplies and setting up their tents, the girls began preparations for dinner.
They cooked macaroni and cheese for dinner using their camp stove and a box oven they had constructed at a previous campout. After eating, the group headed off to explore the farm’s corn maze in the dark—their favorite part of the weekend. Girl Scout Allison commented, “I loved it when my mom jumped out of the dark like a spider monkey and scared us!” Allison’s mother Paula is one of the troop’s adult advisors. Later in the evening, everyone relaxed around a campfire the girls had built sharing stories, songs, and s’mores treats.
The goal at Girl Scouts – North Carolina Coastal Pines is to instill confidence, leadership skills, and a collaborative spirits in girls. Planning and carrying out trips like this is a fun way of working toward those goals. Paula shared that “one of the joys of being a troop leader has been watching the girls grow and mature. It seems that they’ve come a to a new level in their maturity in being able to do so many of the things we used to do for them.”
The girls plan and look forward to many different experiences together. A week after their campout the girls met in an advisor’s kitchen for a cooking lesson. Marie Cloughesy, professional chef and teacher at The Chef’s Academy in Morrisville, taught the girls how to make bruschetta and Chicken Marsala. In addition to teaching cooking skills, Marie talked to the girls about her education and personal experiences as a chef. One of the girls said that she had always been interested in being a chef and really appreciated the opportunity learn from Marie and hear about her experiences.
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Girl Scouts – North Carolina Coastal Pines
Founded in 1912, Girl Scouts of the USA is the preeminent leadership development organization for girls with 3.2 million girl and adult members worldwide. Girl Scouting is the leading authority on girls’ healthy development, and builds girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place.
In partnership with more than 10,000 adult volunteers, Girl Scouts – North Carolina Coastal Pines serves more than 35,000 girl members in 41 central and eastern North Carolina counties. (Counties are: Beaufort, Bladen, Brunswick, Carteret, Chatham, Columbus, Craven, Cumberland, Duplin, Durham, Edgecombe, Franklin, Granville, Greene, Halifax, Harnett, Hoke, Johnston, Jones, Lee, Lenoir, Martin, Moore, Nash, New Hanover, Northampton, Onslow, Orange, Pamlico, Pender, Person, Pitt, Richmond, Robeson, Sampson, Scotland, Vance, Wake, Warren, Wayne, and Wilson.) The council’s administrative headquarters is located in Raleigh, with additional program and service centers located in Fayetteville and Goldsboro. For more information on membership or volunteer opportunities, call 800-284-4475 or visit www.nccoastalpines.org.