Late Start

So, my troop has gotten off to a really late start this year—we just had our second meeting last night. It’s partly because I’ve been overwhelmed while starting my business. And partly because I didn’t receive my registration forms until late October. Ugh.

What amazes me is that while older girl retention is usually so hard, my girls were anxiously waiting to hear from me about when the meetings would start (and e-mailing and calling me to ask). In fact, we actually had an enthusiastic new girl joining Cadettes. Guess I’m doing something right.

Tonight, we talked about what types of things the girls are interested in doing this year. I’ve always known I had a creative bunch, and was not all that surprised when they mentioned sewing, cooking (they really enjoyed earning the Creative Cooking IP last year), jewelry-making, and such. But since they’re all city kids who’ve never shown a real interest when I’ve brought up outdoor sports in the past, I was excited that they have suddenly developed a desire to go canoeing (a personal fave), rock climbing, white-water rafting, and even (gasp) primitive camping. Now, you have to understand that several of these girls had never seen CATERPILLARS before when we went camping a few years ago, so the fact that they’re now all gung-ho to do more outdoor stuff is pretty amazing.

I highly recommend trying some of your council’s programmed camping weekends, since I’m pretty sure the one we went on last spring is the source of this newfound outdoor interest. The girls really loved having the opportunity to try archery and the low-ropes course, which we couldn’t have done without the provided instructors. Also, I think seeing so many enthusiastic high-school and college counselors running the events inspired the girls to reinvest in their Girl Scout experience.

Plus, I have a really awesome group of young ladies!