without the expectation of reward,” says Tade Sullivan, district executive for the Mason-Dixon Council.“ What a wonderful lesson that is— that you should do something just because it’ s the right thing to do.” Darylle Smoot, membership specialist serving Washington County for the Girl Scout Council of the Nation’ s Capital, says that the mission of girl scouts is similar:“ Our program is designed to foster leadership in girls, and part of that leadership is serving the community to make the world a better place.”
STARTING AT HOME Don Harriman, Cubmaster for Pack 23 in Funkstown, says that his pack has worked on cleaning up the Funkstown Park, and helping the town host Funkstown Old Tyme Christmas.“ We always start local,” Don says, especially since the Cub Scout Pack’ s sponsoring organization is the Funkstown American Legion, and Saint Paul’ s Church provides them with meeting space. The
Scoutmaster for Troop 23 in Funkstown, Rich Gaver, says his Boy Scouts completed well over 250 hours of community service in just nine months last year.“ We feel it is important for us to give back to the community,” Rich says.“ If the boys work on a project, then they take ownership of that project. It gives them a sense of pride in their community.”
Girl Scout Troop 40169 from Boonsboro spends a lot of time out in the“ community. Troop Leader Fran Gabianelli says her troop of 15 girls in second through fourth grades has planted trees at Antietam Battlefield, sings Christmas carols every year at area nursing homes and gathers food and clothing for those less fortunate.“ Often times I’ ll notice an article in the paper about a need in the community and approach the girls about it,” Fran says.“ Other times the girls, especially the older girls, provide ideas for projects we can do based on things they notice in the community.” Before Christmas the girls organized a non-perishable food drive to provide meals for children who would not be getting two meals a day at school over holiday break. The Girl Scouts made flyers and stapled them to bags that they handed out to friends and family. Then they collected the food and packaged it for distribution by the principal at Greenbrier Elementary School.
In 2011, several Girl Scouts from Troop 40052 collaborated on a renovation of the library at Hagerstown’ s Memorial Recreation Center.“ They cleaned the room out and pretty much refurbished it,” Darylle says, with fresh paint, new carpet and lighting.“ They made it a really pretty place for the children at Memorial Recreation to come and relax and read books.” Last September the Mason- Dixon Council provided assistance to the National Park Service when 50,000 visitors attended commemorative activities for the 150 th anniversary at Antietam Battlefield. Nearly 650 scouts from the Mason-Dixon Council parked cars, provided water and directions to visitors, patrolled trails, gathered trash,
Recognizing that some local children would not have enough to eat when they were missing two meals at school over holiday break, the members of Girl Scout Troop 40169 collected non-perishable food and packaged it for distribution to children in need at Greenbrier Elementary School.
40 March / April 2013 Hagerstown: The Best of Life in Washington County & Beyond