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With today’s busy schedules, coordinating an event for more than 100 Girl Scouts from troops across Northeast Kansas is never an easy task.

So when 110 Girl Scouts from Miami and Linn counties descended on the Powell Pumpkin Patch on Sunday, Oct. 11 for a special mother-daughter event, you can be sure they made the most of the occasion.

“Unfortunately, somebody ordered a cold day, but we still had everybody come,” said Cheryl Godsey, leader of Louisburg Girl Scout Troop and one of the event’s organizers.

The respective troop leaders make an effort to get the girls together three times a year for a joint event, Godsey said, though this is the first mother-daughter function they’ve had in several years. With more than 200 people total in attendance, the girls roasted hot dogs, ventured into the corn maze, went on a hay ride, decorated pumpkins and scarecrows, and generally enjoyed some valuable bonding time with their mothers and friends.

Attendees were from all levels of the Girl Scout system, from Daisies to senior Girl Scouts, and Godsey said they benefited from spending time with such a wide range of ages and experience levels.

“Older kids help the little kids, and the little kids find someone to look up to,” she said. “It’s a good support system for the leaders, too. It gets the leaders together.”

One of the specific tasks highlighted during the day was a group community service project. The scouts made homemade scarecrows and other seasonal decorations to deliver to six nursing homes in the area – two each in Louisburg, Paola and Osawatomie.

When the girls of Troop 398 delivered their gifts on Oct. 12 to Vintage Park Senior Care Center in Louisburg, Godsey said her charges learned a valuable lesson: there are no age limits on the concepts of fun and friendship.

“They loved it,” she said. “They talked the whole way home, that they were so excited that they made these new friends. They want to go visit often.”

Ava Purvis, director of Vintage Park, said visits from local youth never failed to bring a smile to the faces of their residents. The scarecrow in particular, which now resides on the facility’s front porch, has been a source of much excited conversation.
Interaction with the Girl Scouts reminds them of their own children and grandchildren, Purvis said, and their adventures and activities in scouting.

“They reminisce, and the residents talk about their grandchildren and their own children being in Scouts growing up,” she said. “It’s just an exchange of ideas and memories, and it just works. It works well for both sides.”

Community service is a big part of what being a Girl Scout is all about, Godsey said. And Troop 398, at least, is hoping to make a habit of visiting their new friends at Vintage Park.

“We try to open their eyes to a bigger world than just family and school,” Godsey said. “They need to know what’s in the community, and that they can make people smile by what they do.”

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