By Joan F. Simoneau, Community Reporter
Marlborough-Marlborough Girl Scout Troop #72409 recently held a centennial celebration at the Senior Center, wearing and displaying a selection of uniforms from various decades – 1913 to 2018, and sharing Girl Scout history.
“Each year the girls are encouraged to participate in events in the community that share their spirit and skills,” said Barbara Gold, troop leader. “Girls Scouts prepare young women for life and have been doing so for 100 years here in Marlborough. Our cadette troop meets formally once per month but additionally to enjoy time and achievement together.”
She introduced five cadettes participating in the event – Annaliese Zimmerman, Noa-Lee Bastien, Violet Ren, Samantha Nie, and Pryce Gerome.
All in attendance enjoyed Girl Scout cookies served by the scouts. Their cookie program, according to scout officials, isn’t just about selling cookies. It is about developing skills and learning new things. The troops set cookie sales goals and, with their team, create a plan to reach them. This matters because girls need to know how to set and reach goals to succeed in school, on the job, and in life overall. Being a Girl Scout, according to a program guide, helps them thrive in five key ways: develop a strong sense of self, display positive values, seek challenges and learn from setbacks, form and maintain healthy relationships and learn to identify and solve problems in the community.
Marlborough has an average of 200-300 Girl Scout members per year that are divided into 15-20 troops. They range in age from kindergarten to twelfth grade. As participants in this organization, they are among more than 3.2 million girls and adults in the United States, more than 10 million in the world-wide movement that helps girls discover the fun, friendship, ad power of girls together.
“We have a very active membership and a very supportive service unit,” said Gold.
Also assisting and taking part in the event were Rosemary Ren, troop co-leader; and Janet Nip, Troop volunteer.