Rathi provided the Houston Area Women’s Center with several activity bags. These bags went to children who have to wait for several hours in court rooms to receive foster parents. The activity bags were decorated by troops and filled with stuffed animals, toys, crayons, coloring books, pillows, and modeling clay.

Christina provided patients in the Harris County Hospital with warm, comfortable, handmade caps. She made 39 men’s caps, 44 women’s caps, 52 baby caps, and 59 children’s caps. She made the caps because the patients at this hospital are often alone and without their own possessions to provide comfort.

Tess researched the benefits that a colorful environment can have on an infant and redesigned and painted a nursery for teen moms. She then wrote and designed a small brochure conveying the importance of an infants environment, how to better that environment, and thus affect and stimulate child development.

Andrea held “Friday Night at the Movies” at St. Theresa’s Catholic Church. The event was designed to provide parents with a safe and affordable environment where they could leave their children while providing them with quality entertainment. She held the event on three Fridays in December.

Hoang painted eight classrooms at Our Lady of Lavang Catechism School. She also prepared and displayed 10 Biblical posters within the classrooms.
“I chose this project to improve the atmosphere of the school. From working on this project I learned that I posses leadership qualities,” said La.

Cara hosted a soccer and dance clinic at the Women Helping Women Shelter along with another Girl Scout. She taught children a short dance routine along with a few dance skills each day. They tried to teach the girls teamwork, confidence, leadership skills, and expressing one’s self.

Heavy clouds sat motionless above
the dark treeline. Gray air surrounded the tents, a dense fog of certain violence. The smell of rain rushed through my nostrils. This would be no soft shower but a torrential lashing. The winds raced between our legs, stirring leaves into cyclonic flight. It was darker, colder than it should have been for this time of day. We clutched our flashlights like life jackets, the only instrument we had to ward off the dark.

My first memories of Troop #5234 are of that night in fourth grade, huddled in a leaking tent under a thin Barbie sleeping bag. Fortunately, most of our time together was spent in the dry rooms of MUD 81 building, where Mrs. Beth Watkins held her weekly meetings for 22 girls. Of course, for all our talk of productiveness, meetings were social events from elementary school until graduation day. We earned badges for fashion and travel by strapping ourselves into tight corsets at Juliette Low’s home in Georgia. No matter what manner of work we did, it was fun just because we were

Even after high school, Troop #5234 still gets together for Thanksgiving.

together (that includes our quirky traditions.)

Every year we hold our “untraditional” Thanksgiving Dinner. In lieu of turkey and all the trimmings, we build English muffin pizzas, meaty chili con queso, a vegetable platter, and pumpkin pie. We’re 20-year-olds, but we still get a kick out of singing the Lollipop Grace. And yes, we do “pop.”
Most would think that after a year apart, our bond would be severed. And yet we sit down to eat once a year and all of that history drops away. It feels as if those

12 months never happened. I can’t express how good that familiarity feels, to know that even after high school when your life changes so drastically, there are a few things that stand still.

My career as a young Girl Scout may have ended at 18, but I know, years from now, these girls will still be my friends, my troop. You reach a certain age, usually in junior high, when girls start leaving their troops. Girl Scouts is for children and awkward girls, peers say. But it is not until years later you realize staying in it was the best decision you ever made. If I had dropped Girl Scouts, I would never have spent 12 days traveling in Mexico discovering a world outside my tiny circle. I would never have flown across the Atlantic Ocean to trek Europe for three weeks. I would never have cried as my Council honored us by retiring our troop number at our final bridging ceremony. For every girl who has decided Girl Scouts is old news, I would tell them that this is the single thing in my life I am most proud of.