Harini P. (Ambassador)

Harini began her Girl Scout career the same way many girls do: she joined her local (Wisconsin) troop in elementary school with a bunch of friends. During this time (2001 – 2004), she remembers many things that she had a lot of fun doing.

One of those things was the local Fall Festival. She and her troop decorated pumpkins. After that, as fall passed into winter, she sang at the senior center and skated around the ice rink.

Harini left her Girl Scout troop in 2004 to move to California, and for the next few years she was involved in choir and school centered activities. In 2011, she found out she could rejoin Girl Scouts.

In her new troop (during High school at the age of an Ambassador), she has done many things including gaining a passion for the Women's Rights Movement. One of the things that really affected Harini was when she learned about the "horrors and the terrible things that happen to women of all ages, all colors, all religions and all sizes around the world." She was really affected by the book and movie Half the Sky. She knows for a fact that she wants to volunteer and get involved more with promoting women’s rights through Girl Scouts and on her own.

She says Girl Scouts taught her how to be a good citizen, student, friend, daughter and person. Girl Scouts has taught her to be confident and proud of goodness in opposition to the current belief that one shouldn’t be too much of a "goody two-shoes." It encouraged her to pursue what she loves. It has taught her the valuable lesson that kindness is a strong asset.

In her words, Girl Scouts “makes you feel like you are important even though you might think that you are just one person amongst millions of people in this world. It reminds you that each person makes up the world and if everyone can just think positive thoughts and believe in their worth, then we can actually really effect the world that we live in a good way.”

She plans to become a troop leader, and help mentor and give feedback back to middle school and high school girls.

Marcy R. (Current Leader)

When Marcy’s daughter joined the Girl Scouts in first grade, Marcy didn’t know that it wasn’t only the start of her daughter’s Girl Scouting experience. It was also the start of her own.

She started out as a parent volunteer in her daughter’s troop. She remembers when they did an activity with jellybeans and the girls thought it was the coolest thing. They used to get so excited over everything when they were younger.

Around 2003, the troop leaders of her daughter’s Girl Scout troop ceased being leaders, and Marcy and a few other parents took over as the leaders.

Marcy has led her troop as they have earned numerous patches along with Journeys and awards. For their Bronze Award they gathered materials which they placed into tubs called “troop tubs” for new troops. For their Silver Award they redecorated and restored the Habitat for Humanity mural in Oxnard. A lot of the girls in her troop are currently working on their Gold Awards.

Though camping is a huge Girl Scout tradition, Marcy calls her troop “the Urban Troop” since they are more at home in a mall than in the woods. They have camped a bit at Kaleidoscope and in other places, but not much elsewhere.

At Kaleidoscope, they have directed the games workshop, and they enjoy doing the one pot cook-off there every time.

Marcy’s troop loves to cook. Besides the cook-off they have also completed a badge about cooking around the world. They learned to cook Dutch-oven style and participated in something called “Thinking Day”. During this Girl Scout tradition of “Thinking Day” girls explore different cultures and their cuisines. Sometimes, her troop also has the urge to spontaneously whip up baked goods like fresh brownies and cookies for their meetings.

Besides being adept at edible crafts, they are also good at handicrafts. They have done many over the years, including making newspaper beads and inventive S.W.A.P.S (Small Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere).

As Marcy and her troop have changed and passed through the different stages of Girl Scouts, Girl Scouts has also changed. The Journeys have evolved to help girls explore the world as they follow a story arc that is concluded with an award at the end instead of a "scatter-shot" of badges. The Journeys are much deeper compared to what they used to be.

Marcy and her troop are also interested in the state of the world. They recently went on a field trip to see an exhibit for the documentary Half the Sky. She believes that Girl Scouts has been in sync with the Women’s Rights Movement all along. Juliette Lowe was pretty radical in her day about what equals women’s rights and what women ought to be.

Marcy states that what she mostly sees in girls that come out of Girl Scouts is confidence. Confidence in the way they handle themselves and how they live. "It doesn’t matter how many badges or how much experience they have had, above all, they exude confidence."

She says that part of what drew her to Girl Scouts are the character vows of being honest and being a sister to every Girl Scout (as part of the Girl Scout Promise and Law states).

Marcy has been with her daughter’s troop since the Brownie days and has helped them along starting as a parent volunteer and then being a leader through out the years, in addition she also holds a position in the Girl Scout Organization as a Learning Facilitator and Gold Award Committee Chair.