100th Anniversary - Guest Blog: Shook

Our thanks go to Emily Shook for this week's blog entry.  Emily is a Girl Scout Brownie and Cadette Troop Leader, as well as the co-Service Unit Manager for Urbandale.

Interested in being our next guest blogger?  Email us!

Do you have someone that you'd like to nominate at a Girl Scout Great?  Click here to learn more!

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Emily Shook

Girl Scout Brownie & Cadette
Troop Leader
Co-Service Unit Manager
Urbandale, IA

When I was asked to write a story for this blog, I thought about what part of Girl Scouts is most important to me. So I looked to the Girl Scout law, you can ask any of my girls and they will tell you what my favorite part of the law is.... "to be a sister to every Girl Scout". I've never had a sister and most of my life I've been outnumbered by boys, so the idea of being a sister is special to me. Girl Scouts all around the world are bound together in this unique sisterhood. I now have 10 million sisters!

Since I will probably never meet all 10 million of my sister Girl Scouts, I will focus on the ones that I have met! I am a sister to both my Brownie and a Cadette troops, and I have expanded beyond my girls to serve as the co-Service Unit Manager for Urbandale. I love all the friendships that have developed in all these areas.

My Cadette troop has been together since Kindergarten, and I've been their leader since they were first graders. It has been such an honor to watch them grown into young women. They are almost all as tall as me! They have become busy as their social lives expand and have become more involved in sports, music, church and other activities. Our troop meeting frequency and times are changing this year, all so they can remain together as they move into this next chapter of their lives. My hope is that the sisterhood of Girl Scouts ties these 16 girls together for life. The memories of horseback riding, playing football, decorating cakes, giving to others, and the countless other adventures we've had will make their friendships even sweeter. We are a diverse group of girls from every elementary school in the Urbandale area. Next year as the all go to same middle school, the sisterhood of Girl Scouts will connect them and be even more important. Watching our relationship change, from me being a leader to more of an advisor and friend has been great.

It is also fun to watch with anticipation as my Brownie girls move forward and mature. I am definetly a more experienced leader than I was the first time around with this age. In their two years together, they've already matured and come out of their shells. The shy little group of girls I had, has blossomed into an outgoing friendly group. I know that as they move forward together, they will find their friendship and the bond of sisterhood growing even stronger between them.

Girl Scouts has broaden my connections in my community as well as brought about friendship with other families that we may never of had. I am thankful for all the opportunities I've had...and if my math calculations are correct, I have at least another 15 years of fun!

- Emily Shook

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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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100th Anniversary - Guest Blog: Bruner

We're recognizing Suzie Bruner as this week's guest blogger.  Suzie is among our valued Girl Scout leaders from Council Bluffs.

Are you interested in being our next guest blogger?  If so, please email us! 

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Suzie Bruner (2nd from left) with friends, daughter,
and staff at the Girl Scout Annual Meeting.

Hello, my name is Suzie Bruner.  You might say Scouting is in my blood.  My parents were Den Masters and Leaders for Boy Scouts.  My Mother was the helper in my Girl Scout Troop.  Our Troop would meet once a week right after school.  Our leader, Mrs. Jones, had her hands full.  At that time we didn’t have many Leader’s in my area and she ended up being the Leader for all the girls in my school class.  I think there were about 30 of us.  We would leave school on Tuesdays, all of us walking to her house where we held our meetings.  She would move all the furniture in her house to the side walls and put up tables where we would sit and do crafts, and work in our Girl Scouts Brownie Books.  We wore the Girl Scout uniform which consisted of the Brownie dress, tie and beanie.  The tie was a real tie and we had to learn how to tie it correctly.  You might say this was my first lesson in knots.  Whenever one of the Girl’s in our Troop had a Birthday we wore our uniform to school that day.  Our way of saying Happy Birthday to a fellow Girl Scouts.  With so many of us in our Troop we wore our uniforms often.  When it was time to Bridge to Juniors Mrs. Jones had decided to step down from Girl Scouts.  This left all of us without a leader.  Both my parents were already involved in Boy Scouting and working.  This left me no choice, but to end my Girl Scouting days as a Girl.

Later in life I had boys.  I would help with Boy Scouts, but never really got that involved.  We moved from Council Bluffs and I lost touch with Scouting.  Then came my daughter.  She joined as a Daisy.  She had a wonderful Leader and Co Leader.  She was getting the full experience of be a Girl Scouts.  I would go help out occasionally but didn’t feel the need to get involved.  Then our family was moving again.  This time we moved back to my home town of Council Bluffs.  When we went to register for Girl Scouts it was almost summer and time for Camp.  My daughter was not excited to go to camp without friends, but with some encouragement off she went.  This was not a very good experience and she was going to quit.  Then I remembered the great experiences I had with my parents as Leader’s and friends that I had due to Girl Scouts.  So I decided I was going to be her Leader.  I went to my training and thought boy this is a lot of responsibility.  I don’t know if I can live up to the Girl Scouts expectations.  With lots of encouragement and help from the staff I started my Troop.  We had the typical trials and errors of Girl Scouts the first year.  Then it all seemed to fall in place.  I had a troop of girls that wanted to be Girl Scouts.   I was getting as much out of Girl Scouts as they were. 

Then came the big question?  Would I be willing to be Service Manager for Service Unit 406?  I didn’t think this was something that I was qualified for.  But again with some encouragement I became the Service Unit Chair.  With this came more responsibility. My family began to think I was living and breathing Girl Scouts.  In a way I was.  So I decided to ask for help.  I began by asking others that didn’t know me.  This gave us a bigger range of ideas to work from.  From there, not only have I got to work with the girls, I have gained some of the best friends I could ask for.   During my years as a Leader and Service Unit Manager I think the most important thing I have gained out of Girl Scouts is friendship. 

Like they say, once a Girl Scout always a Girl Scout.

- Suzie Bruner

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100th Anniversary - Guest Blog: Farmer

Thank you to our guest blogger, Twan Farmer, for her thoughts and Girl Scout story. Twan was also our first winner of our Facebook Giveaway 'Cookie Connection'!  She is extremely passionate about Girl Scouts and was a long time member of Girl Scouts of Eastern Iowa Western Illinois.

Interested in being one of our guest bloggers?  Email us and tell us your story!

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Twan Farmer (left) with
camp counselors/friends

When I was eleven years old I sat at the top of what seemed like a huge cliff looking over the edge. Suddenly it didn't matter that I had a harness on or that I had practiced this so many times before, it looked like I was about to step off the edge of the earth. As I sat there thinking of every bad thing that might happen if I slid those few feet to my left, I heard a voice telling me, "It's okay, if you don't want to do it you don't have to. We aren't going to make you do anything you don't feel comfortable with, but we want you to know that if you decide to go we won't let anything happen to you.  And we wouldn't let you do anything you weren't ready for.  It's your choice but remember there is nothing we haven't prepared you for, nothing you can't do if you try." It still took a few minutes after that, but thanks to those words from my counselor and the encouragement of my fellow campers, I went over the edge and rappelled down just like we had practiced at camp. And it is because of those words and all the other lessons I learned through Girl Scouts and Camp Conestoga that I’ve become the person I am today.

I am incredibly grateful to Girl Scouts for making me feel prepared throughout my life. In high school I was getting a ride home from a friend and we came out to a flat tire, no problem, I took a car care workshop to earn my Auto Maintenance Interest Project Patch.

When I was looking for a college, I wasn’t nervous about living in a dorm because I had gone to camp every year and I figured if I could live in a tent with strangers I could handle a dorm room. I also ended up choosing my college (Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA) because after narrowing down my list of schools to two that had the program I wanted and looked like places I would thrive, I saw that Agnes had a Campus Girl Scout program and the choice was simple. When I was there, on my own for the first time, halfway across the country from everyone I knew, I used the skills I had learned at camp and on my Wider-Op to meet lots of different people. I managed my money well because I learned those skills earning Try-Its and badges and IPPs. And at the end of my first year I applied to be a Resident Advisor figuring my CIT and counselor experience would serve me well. I was right and found myself loving the first year dorms where I got to do lots of get-to-know each other activities and help girls adjusting to life away from home for the first time.

After college I moved all over trying different things, and while each time was nerve-wracking I knew I would be okay because I had the skills I needed to be successful in almost anything I tried. Even when I didn’t know how to do something specific at a job or in general, I had the skills to find the information I needed or to interact with the person I needed to ask. I took the leadership skills I learned while earning my various Leadership Awards and used them to be promoted at almost every job I’ve ever had. I have been a Trainer at almost every job because I have shown that I not only know how to excel at my position, but that I can try many and varied ways of teaching skills in order to help others learn different things - all skills learned throughout my time with Girl Scouts.

And while it has taken me a bit of time to decide what I want to be when I grow up, I have never felt completely lost because I know that I have numerous invaluable skills that I can use to get me through almost ANY situation in life. I am currently using those skills to save money to get my Masters in Library and Information Science, I plan to focus in Children’s and Teen Services where I hope I can help lots of future Girl Scouts earn their patches.

But the thing I am most grateful for from my time in Girl Scouts is the feeling of family. I am an only child and both of my parents are only children. I never knew what it was like to be surrounded by aunts and uncles and cousins or siblings. But when I went to Girl Scout meetings or workshops or Camp Conestoga, I understood what that meant. Even now, as an adult, I find myself turning to my CIT counselor for advice (Hi Quibs!) or messaging fellow counselors or Girl Scouts when I see something that reminds me of one of our adventures. I keep up with almost all of my former CITs and feel like a proud mama duck watching her ducklings become full-grown. I feel honored to have played even a tiny role in their lives. The best thing is feeling so unconditionally loved by all of the people I have encountered no matter how long it has been since we’ve seen each other. I will never be able to thank Girl Scouts enough for giving me such a huge worldwide family, but I will do my best to give back to that family in any and every way I personally can for the rest of my life because I wouldn’t be who I am today without them.

- Twan Farmer

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