Girl Scout Success

Learning Through Scouting

By Greg Davis
United Way of Blount County Volunteer

What do Bedsheets, Braille, Beautiful Blount, Youth camps have in common? They are all programs the Girl Scouts have initiated through the Power of U in United Way.

Becky Dickenson, Janet Bundy, Marquita Porter, Pam Moses and Leza Dege can all testify to the Power of U in their pursuit of their goals in community service for the Girl Scouts.

The Gold Award is the Girl Scout’s equivalent of their counterparts Eagle Scout. It is a high honor awarded for a project requiring 46 hours of work or more.

The young women have participated in such projects as labeling video and audio cassettes at the Blount County Library in Braille for use by Blount County’s blind patrons.

Marquita has participated in the Beautiful Blount campaign, landscaping for Bravo awards and picking up trash in the Smokies. She is enthusiastic where scouting is concerned, and expresses her appreciation of the assistance she has received in her endeavors through the Power of U.

Leze is actively involved in the Flag Corps at her high school. She organized a Flag Clinic for local youth to get them involved in the activity.

One of the other girl scouts put together a program to send bedsheets to a South American country.

To finish her gold award, Marquita has plans to collect children’s books to build a library at the local homeless shelters for battered women. She finds it difficult to juggle her scouting activities around soccer, basketball and softball, but is very appreciative of the financing of the United Way.

Girl Scouting is an American tradition that is the hope for our tomorrow, and it is made possible through the Power of U!