Community Corner

Scouts Leader 'Amazed' by her Troop

She joined to lead her daughter's troop 12 years ago, but she's sticking around for herself.

As the Girl Scouts of America are celebrating their centennial anniversary today, one local troop leader said it shows that scouts have been around a long time and aren't just a fad.

Cindy Cook is in her twelfth year as a Girl Scouts troop leader, and currently she leads a troop of eleventh graders and one from Hillcrest that has first and second grade students, she said.

"My favorite part of being a troop leader is watching the girls work together," Cook said.

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She first started as a leader when her daughter and some girls in her class wanted to form a troop and needed someone to head it. 

"It's been amazing. I've been able to watch her grow, she said, adding that some of the girls have created "friendships on some parts that might not have been formed without them being in the same troop."

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She said she's proud of some of the projects her troops have organized, such as the younger girls creating cards for families with children with cancer. Her older girls planned and ran a carnival where the funds raised went to victims of the Haiti earthquake.

Another example of how she's amazed by her scouts is what the young girls decided to do with their cookie money. Instead of using it for themselves, every single girl wanted to give it to charity, she said.

"I would never have thought of that coming from 6- to 8-year-olds," she said. "It's little things like that."

She said she is planning on continuing to lead after her daugther graduates high school because of what she believes scouts does for young girls.

"I'm not necessarily defined by my children," she said. "Just becuase my daughter is no longer in doesn't mean that I don't want to ... continue to be a part of it."


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