Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Celebrates 100 Years
Of Building Girls of Courage, Confidence and Character
Growing up is exciting, but it can be tricky!
Juggling friends, family, classes, and extracurricular interests is an overwhelming puzzle with few easy solutions. In addition, the recent pandemic has multiplied the challenges of childhood tenfold. As a result, many young girls may feel challenged or overloaded by the ever-changing world, making it difficult to maintain their confidence and drive.
Girl Scouts provides girls of all backgrounds and interests a safe place to explore hands-on, girl-led and girl-centered learning in STEM, the outdoors, and entrepreneurship, and abundant opportunities to develop invaluable life skills. Together, they will develop lifelong friendships and leadership abilities that will benefit them well beyond their years in Girl Scouting. Through personal discovery, team connection, and community impact, Girl Scouts builds courageous, confident women who lead change, locally and globally.
Discover
Girl Scouts empowers girls to be themselves!
The Girl Scouts program encourages girls to explore the interests of their hearts. They are motivated to shape their paths by chasing their passions and leading their own journey. By taking on the challenges behind each unique experience, girls build selfconfidence and a greater understanding of the world around them while being urged to think bigger. They can explore intriguing subjects – like robotics, sailing or astronomy - and confirm those they don’t like. Instead of seeking perfection, Girl Scouts nurtures the potential of every fantastic girl.
Brooke Blakely, a Girl Scout of
Troop #145023, commented on her self-discovery, “I’ve learned a lot about myself. If I’m going to take on such a big goal, I have to complete it. I’ve become more outspoken and a leader in my troop.”
This personal exploration helps develop a strong sense of self, practical life skills, and critical thinking. It allows eager girls to understand the limits of their abilities while encouraging them to rise above self-set boundaries. Girl Scouts pushes girls to be their best!
“Girl Scouts is well-rounded. It doesn’t pigeonhole girls into being one particular thing. It allows them to explore the facets of their personality,” said Kelsey Hurych, troop leader and member of her Girl Scout community’s leadership team. “They are these powerhouses that can be the change they want to see in the world.”
Connect
Girl Scouts provides a sisterhood for life!
Girl Scouting helps nervous girls make new friends and find their voice. They get to connect and collaborate with other girls through troops, badge workshops and events, camping, service projects and many other activities. The inclusive, girl-led environment in Girl Scouting creates a safe space in which girls can try new things, develop a range of skills, take on leadership roles, and feel comfortable failing, dusting themselves off, and trying again! Learning to work with others and setting and achieving goals is rewarding and helps girls develop their leadership potential. Girl Scouts dismantle competition between girls, focusing instead on beneficial collaboration.
These are skills that will benefit girls for life, well beyond their years in Girl Scouting.
“Girl Scouts gave me an outlet to be who I want to be. Freely make bonds and connections with Gril Scouts, troop leaders and other adult role models,” Brooke said. “I’m very close with my Girl Scout sisters. Most of them I’ve known since the fourth grade.”
Through the journey of completing their badge, workshop, or service project, Girl Scouts encourages teamwork, team building, and thinking of others first. Scout cooperation teaches girls how to handle conflict, maintain healthy relationships, and feel connected to their troops and communities. Team activities also inspire girls to take leadership roles they would have otherwise not.
Above all, Girl Scouts provides a sisterhood every girl can lean on. A place where ALL girls can make lifelong friends. Girl Scouts can find comfort in a set of friends experiencing the same life struggles.
Take Action
Girl Scouts are responsible for impacting their communities!
To prepare girls for the leadership roles they’ll take on in the future, we need to provide them with an unparalleled leadership experience now. Girl Scouts have been making our world a bette place formore than 100 years by promoting citizenship, community service and Take-Action projects as part of the process to earn badges. These comprise sustainable services with lasting impacts on the local community that motivate others to join the cause.
“A lot of the badge work encourages them to reach outside of themselves, to reach out into the community,” Kelsey mentioned about the Girl Scouts’ local influence. “If people looked into what it is to be part of a Girl Scout troop, they’d be surprised at the number of opportunities for
growth their girls would see being in that sort of setting.”
These community challenges help girls embrace learning by doing and deliver the satisfaction of helping more than the troop. Take-Action projects show girls their efforts are a part of something bigger than themselves. It allows girls to see the difference they can make in the world while learning to recognize community needs, problem-solve, and advocate for themselves and others.
In addition, only Girl Scouts offers girls a one-of-a-kind opportunity to engage in leadership at the highest levels while addressing an issue they feel passionately about—this opportunity is the Girl Scout Gold Award, the most prestigious award in the world for girls. Girl Scout Gold Award recipients rate their general success significantly higher than their peers and report greater success in reaching their goals in many areas, including: higher education and careers, life skills and community involvement.
Girl Scouts of the USA
Girl Scouts is 1.7 million girls and adults who believe in the power of every girl to change the world. Chartered by GSUSA to provide Girl Scouting locally, Girl Scouts of San Jacinto Council is one of the country’s largest Girl Scout councils, serving more than 35,000 girl members and 14,000 adults in 26 southeast Texas counties.
Brooke spoke out about girls thinking of joining, “Just do it. You’ll get a lifetime of memories that you’ll always have with you. You’ll always have your sisters to call and talk to. And they’ll always be there for you. Just like you’ll be there for them.”
For more information on joining or volunteering, visit the Girl Scouts of San Jacinto website at www.gssjc.com/ join or call 713-292-0300.