This week, we are thrilled to feature Danielle Sauka as a guest blogger! Danielle is a TV producer at KCCI Channel 8 in Des Moines and has been involved in Girl Scouts ever since she was in first grade! We want to thank Danielle for this wonderful entry.
If you are interested in being a guest blogger, please email us and tell us your story!
___________________________________________________________
 |
| Danielle Sauka TV Producer KCCI Channel 8 Des Moines |
My experience in Girl Scouts has been anything but ordinary.
The organization and the people I have met through it, have changed my life. To start, it was average, my mom was
the leader of our troop… we sold cookies, planted flowers, and made crafts. But
a few years in, most of the girls lost interest and our troop called it quits.
(Sorry, Mom) However my friend Jenny and I weren’t quite ready to give up on
Girl Scouts… and we were scooped up by another troop leader, Valerie
McLagan.
Val welcomed us to her troop with open arms and a big smile. Val was unlike anyone I had ever met
before, she was genuinely unique. Val became so much more than a troop leader…
she was our second mom, our role model, and our good friend. She treated us like
equals instead of kids. She encouraged our troop to run with our ideas and
goals, no matter how impossible they seemed. One of our biggest ideas? A troop trip to Florida for spring
break! She supported us, but didn’t do it for us... helping with fund raising
ideas and showing us how to book a flight. With Val’s support (and parental
permission) we spent a week on the beach in Sarasota. Probably not your typical
Girl Scout troop activity, but that trip was so eye-opening, my first true test
of independence. To board the plane, knowing we made it happen was a feeling
unlike any other. It wasn’t just a vacation, that trip helped build my courage,
my confidence, and my character.
The trip also
taught me to take advantage of opportunities… you see, our flight on the way
home was overbooked, and Delta was looking for volunteers to give up their
seats. We took the gamble, (with parental permission) and ended up in first
class seats on our way to New York City for the night. Delta put us up in a
hotel, with a flight back to the Twin Cities in the morning. We skipped sleep
to tour the Big Apple…. visiting Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, and
Ground Zero. But Val didn’t navigate the city for us, she put me in charge of
figuring out how to get around on the subway system. Another lesson in
independence.
Val’s other lasting life-lesson… live in the moment, slow
down, take one thing at a time. I can remember driving home from camp, all us
girls in the van. She didn’t speed down the highway, anxious for life’s next
task after a week in the woods. She went the speed limit, enjoyed the ride and
waved at the car passing us in the left lane.
I was asked to give an eulogy at her funeral in December of
2010… The final words read “A Girl Scout golden rule is to always leave a place
better than you found it. I know Val left this world and our lives, much better
than she found it.”
- Danielle Sauka
___________________________________________________________
Love this, Danielle!
ReplyDelete