Local Girl Scouts participate in World Thinking Day
Breckenridge’s Girl Scout Troop 8356 participated in World Thinking Day, a global Girl Scout event, earlier this month.
On Saturday, March 3, more than 200 girls and their parents gathered in Abilene to learn, teach and work on acceptance and understanding in the annual World Thinking Day event, which is celebrated by Girl Scouts and Girl Guides globally each year with girls gathering together to Step Up, Stand Out and Get Involved.
As part of World Thinking Day, the girls researched a country and represented that country by presenting what they learned about it to their sister scouts. Troop 8356 chose India this year.
Girl Scout Dad Matt Wunsch talks to the girls in Troop 8356 about cooking curry chicken they were about to cook for World Thinking Day. (Photo courtesy of Kim Fuller)
They met on the Friday night prior to the event and took all their research and supplies to Sweet Accessories. For four hours, the girls prepped and cooked curry chicken, created an information board with facts and interesting information about the culture in India, created costumes, learned about henna and painted their hands. They also made 200 SWAPS – a small pins representing the country that they would hand out to all the Girl Scouts attending WTD as a reminder that they visited the India booth at the event.
According to troop leader Kim Fuller, the girls actively participated in all aspects of the preparation for WTD, including the cooking. This year’s cooking class was led by Girl Scout Dad Matt Wunsch, and the girls chopped, peeled and cooked on the stove to create their curry chicken.
At the WTD event on March 3, the girls had to explain their country’s food choice and encourage other girls to try it. They also welcomed each Girl Scout who came to visit their booth and told them facts about the country of India. Each girl attending WTD gets a passport that is stamped by the country they visit as they travel around the room learning about different cultures and sampling food items from the various countries represented. At the end of the event, the 200 girls gathered in a friendship circle for the closing ceremony.
In addition to studying and creating a presentation about another country, the girls met this year’s initiative of “Impact.” The girls were tasked to find ways to make an impact on their communities and the globe by finding a problem within their community, researching it and taking action to resolve it. Girl Scout Troop 8356 met that initiative this year with their involvement with the Breckenridge Fire Department and their community when they educated those around them about the importance of working smoke detectors, as well as their donation of new smoke detectors to BFD earlier this month.
“WTD is a great way for these girls to learn about diversity, struggle and people who have made an impact on the world that they live in,” Fuller wrote. “Breckenridge Girl Scout Troop 8356 left World Thinking Day that Saturday having tried new foods and drinks from countries they’ve only heard about while having learned about women’s roles and the cultures within those countries. They even left with ideas of how to make their little part of this world a better place and dreams about traveling to distant lands one day to see for themselves the things they learned about the countries represented at WTD.”
Information courtesy of Kim Fuller
Cutline, top photo: Breckenridge’s Girl Scout Troop 8356 participated in World Thinking Day in Abilene earlier this month. They chose India as the country they researched and shared information about. Local girls participating included, from left, front row, Athena Sanders, Rachel Burchett, Maggie Wunsch and Malia Dauer; and, back row, Rylee Fuller, Kenzie Blackman, Kodee Crawford, Rihana Fuller and Alyssa Ewing. (Photo courtesy of Kim Fuller)
