100th Anniversary - Guest Blog: Matthes

Monica Matthes brings her inspiring words to us this week as our guest blogger.  Read on to hear her fond reflections of Camp Lakota and her adventures in Girl Scouts - both as a girl and as a leader for her daughter's troop!

If you would like to be our next guest blogger, please email us!

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Monica Matthes and children
Girl Scout Troop Leader

It seems like so long ago, but the more I think about it the more the memories come streaming back. It was a dark night on my first night sleeping in a tent with girls I did not know in a place I was not yet comfortable in. The tears started and shortly after I heard sniffing from the other three girls who were experiencing the same thing as I was and that was home sickness. Of course after a week of fun, singing, cooking over the campfire, swimming every day, and horse back riding came the last night camp fire and the dread of telling all my friends and counselors good-bye.  Yes, I even remember the names of the counselors, Willy and Doc, and the tears started all over again - for different reasons.  Camp Lakota was a big part of my memories as a Girl Scout.  I still sing the songs and still know the Girl Scout Promise and even though the camp is no longer in operation I will always carry the memories with me forever. 

Twenty years later, my daughter was born.  I had the habit of telling stories and singing and one day I was singing a song I learned from the nights in front of the campfire at Camp Lakota. She loved it and I began to teach it to her.  Five years later, the prospect of becoming a Girl Scout Daisy was on the horizon. I did not have to talk her into it because she was more than ready to embark on the adventures that I often talked about.

Since then, five years have gone by and she is a Girl Scout Junior.  As for me, I am still active in the quality and quantity of life lessons that Girl Scouting gives to girls. My daughter Kiera is an outgoing young lady who is a leader, takes charge of situations and rights the wrongs especially when it comes to friends who are in trouble. She may be only 10, but with the guidance of Girl Scouts, she is outspoken, courteous, mild manner, and loves to be around people. We work together when it comes to Girl Scouts because even as a 40 year old I learn from Girl Scouts also. We sell cookies together, sell nuts together, put out flags for Memorial Day together, and do the lock-ins together. Last year we even did the Frontier Parade in Fort Dodge together to celebrate 100 wonderful years of Girl Scouts. I was a co-leader for three years of her Girl Scout career and will probably continue that this fall when I take on the fourth grade juniors as they continue to grow and learn about the all the possibilities Girl Scouts can give them.

I can not begin to explain how much Girl Scouts has meant to me and how many memories my daughter and I will carry with us for a long time.  Hopefully some day she will be singing songs or talking about memories of girl scouts to her daughter and another generation of Girl Scouts will be started. Girl Scouts are a wonderful group of young ladies learning from each other and from different generations. It gives girls a chance to learn how to become leaders, how to work as a team, and how to appreciate all the world can give them. I know in my heart that my daughter will find her little nitch in this world because of the courage, and knowledge she has learned from being a Girl Scout.

All I can say is thank you for leading this little girl to camp Lakota and teaching her how to engage in fun, creativity, and leadership and being able to pass that on to her daugther - together we are Girl Scouts.

-Monica Matthes

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