Local Girl Scouts Celebrate 100 Years

March 12 marked the 100th Anniversary of Girl Scouting in the USA. In honor of this momentous occasion, Girl Scout Heart of New Jersey Council's Bridgewater-Raritan Cadette Troop 61254 held a "birthday" party at its meeting Monday.

The troop celebrated with games, and the Scouts received awards which they had earned since September 2011. Among those awards was the completion of the aMaze Journey [one of several new programs offered by the Girl Scout organization].  

Troop 61254 has many plans for celebrating the 100th anniversary. It started with the George Washington Bridge "Bridging into the Next Century" event held in October. 

Then, on Sunday, the troop participated in two local church services that honored Girl Scouting at both and Good Shepherd Lutheran Church in Somerville.    

One of the troop's upcoming events includes a trip to Washington D.C. for the Rock the Mall event hosted by the Girl Scout Council of the nation's capital. The itinerary includes a tour of the Capitol Building, the White House, Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum, a twilight bus tour of the city, several Smithsonian museums and of course, the Rock the Mall event at the Washington Monument. 

The scouts are preparing more than 1,500 swaps for this event, learning the Rock the Mall song and dance and working on requirements to complete a 100th anniversary patch.   

In addition, each scout in the troop wrote a letter to Michelle Obama requesting that they have the opportunity to meet her when they are in Washington D.C.  This packet was sent out last month and they have not received any response to date. 

But these letters contained their heartfelt expressions regarding Obama's Healthy Eating campaign and her appearances on "iCarly" and "Sesame Street."  The letters also included some of the scouts' favorite events to inform Obama about how much the troop does for its community. 

Among the many events have been serving food to the Women's Build Day for Habitat for Humanity, collecting pet supplies for local animal shelters, sewing cozy cushions for veteran's hospitals, sewing pillow cases and packing boxes for Operation Jersey Cares.

Cadette Troop 61254 is also currently working on its Silver Award, which is is the highest award that a Cadette Scout can earn. Some of the Silver Award projects include a service project for one of their churches to preserve their hymnals and other books used during Mass, making greeting card distribution boxes for several local senior centers for those seniors who do not have the ability to go to a card store, collecting books and supplies for local day care centers and the pediatric ward at a local hospital and collecting supplies for local teen and women's abuse shelters.

—Sandy Mountney, leader, GSHNJ Troop 61254