Page 88 - South Mississippi Living - April, 2020

THE SECTION
WHO RUNS THE WORLD?
story by Jae Schifano photos courtesy of Jennifer Larson
Troops staying active with projects in the community funded by the sale of the cookies.
aisies, Brownies, Juniors, Cadettes, Seniors, and Ambassadors make up the six levels of the Girl Scouts community service based group. Within Mississippi, there are 186 girls registered with 20 active troops.
Each troop participates in multiple di erent service projects throughout the year, some exclusive to individual troops and others that local Girl Scouts participate in together. Service projects for the Gulf Coast troops include the Warm Coat Drive, Veteran’s Day Parade, Donnie Levens American Legion, Annual songs and S’mores Girl Scouts bon re on the beach, USM Golden Basket Program, Christmas Caroling for Charity, Wreaths
Across America, and Coastal Cleanup.
Long Beach
Troop 3429
Leader, Jennifer
Larson has an active troop of six girls: Abbi Larson, Hanna Larson, Ashlyn Johnson, and Madison Morris, Chloe Lennard, and Natalie Alvina-Olmos. Hanna and Madison are making pet adoption bags to give to the Hancock County Animal Shelter with new
adoptions as part of their Bronze Award. Cadette Scouts Abbi and Ashlyn hope to complete their Media
Journey initiatives
by creating a
reading area with positive messages at a local children’s hospital or shelter for their Silver
Awards. Service
projects like these are largely funded by the sale of
the cookies that we all know and love. It’s good to
know that these addictive treats are for a good cause!
Troop Leader Larson says, “All of the troops worked very hard this year. The total number of cases received for Girl Scout cookies is 1,955. That’s
a lot of cookies!” The girls said
that so far their favorite service
projects have been working on their
ideas for their awards. Madison
explained, “Helping out the
community makes it all worth it.”
No troop is the same, but each
unit has the same goal: to prepare
the girls for anything that might
come their way while teaching them the importance of helping others. “It’s about what you can do for the children,” says Larson. “Not only teaching them the ropes of life and how to help out their community in every way possible, but also teaching them how to have fun while doing it.”
Girl Scouts of Greater Mississippi
www.gsgms.org
88 | April 2020
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