Breckenridge Texan

Local Girl Scout troop 8356 has had a busy spring, participating in a variety of activities. Check out some of their adventures:

Breckenridge Girl Scout Troop 8356 members pose for a picture on their trip to watch Disney on Ice in Dallas. (Photo courtesy of Kim Fuller)

Dallas Trip
Girl Scout roop 8356 went to Dallas in April to attend Scout Night at the American Airlines Center. They boarded the TRE in Downtown Fort Worth and rode to the AAC to attend Disney On Ice’s performance of “Dare To Dream.” The troop joined hundreds of other Girl Scouts in North Texas to watch the show and received a special Scout fun patch for their uniforms. They ate snow cones out of a collectible Disney Beauty & The Beast “Chip” teacup, had dinner and gathered for a Troop picture.

“As a troop, I provide them with dozens of events and opportunities based on their interests,” said troop leader Kim Fuller. “I bring the information to the girls and they review it and vote on what they’d like to do. Girl Scouts is ‘Girl Led,’ so this afford these girls the opportunities to express what they want to work on in their community and what events and trips they’d like to attend. As I’ve said, often, you are not just buying a box of cookies. The proceeds from the cookie sales provide some of these girls experiences that they would not have otherwise been able to have, and we thank everyone that supports us on all of our adventures.”

Breckenridge Girl Scouts, from left, Kodee Crawford, Rachel Burchett, Rylee Fuller, Rihana Fuller and Maggie Wunsch, visited Fossil Rim in Glen Rose for their Cookie Diva trip. (Photo courtesy of Kim Fuller)

Diva Trip
At the end of April, six local Girl Scouts who achieved the Cookie Diva level traveled to Glen Rose to attend the Cookie Diva trip sponsored by Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains. Only girls who sold a minimum of 1,200 boxes of cookies were invited to attend the overnight event. The girls represented the Breckenridge Service Unit 753, Troop 8356, and arrived at Fossil Rim Wildlife Park on a Saturday morning.

During their trip, the girls learned about the ecosystem and how the majority of the Texas landscape had once been covered in water. They attended a fossil dig in an area of Fossil Rim that was being excavated and many found fossils of plants, small ammonites and other brachiopods while hiking through the newly exposed limestone layers. They also attended classes to learn about conservation of native plants and animals found in Central Texas. The girls were taken on a behind-the-scenes tour of areas of the Fossil Rim Wildlife Park and were able to ride in an open air bus to feed the animals that call Fossil Rim their home. Their night ended with dinner, tie dyeing and s’mores, songs and skits around the campfire.

Local Girl Scouts enjoyed breakfast over the lookout at Fossil Rim on their Cookie Diva trip. Pictured, from left, are Maggie Wunch, Alyssa Ewing, Rachel Burchett, Rylee Fuller, Kodee Crawford and Rihana Fuller. (Photo courtesy of Kim Fuller)

“This was a great experience for the girl’s to learn about the region around them. Most had no idea that Texas was once covered in water,” Fuller said. “While on this overnight trip, the girls earned a number of merit badges including: hiking, cabin camping, outdoor adventurer and animal habitats. Overnight trips with fun animal encounters allow the girls to meet several steps of their merit badges easily. Trips like this are so much more fun to incorporate badge earning opportunities than having the girls research them online or during a troop meeting. The girls learn and retain more of the teaching points during these real world experiences and that makes it fun for both them and myself as a leader.”

Frontier Days
Girl Scout Troop 8356 returned again to Frontier Days in early May to help set up tables and chairs and to serve drinks at the Chuckwagon Cookoff Lunch. The girls helped clean up tables and trash at the lunch, and after all the guests left, they then helped set up the tables and chairs for the Breckenridge Idol contest later that afternoon.

“The girls enjoy this each year as it affords us the ability to give back to the community that helped support us during our cookie sales,” Fuller said. “As a member of the Chamber of Commerce, Girl Scout Troop 8356 tries to support as many Chamber events as we can because we feel that when our community comes together to celebrate, we open up opportunities to cultivate new relationships as well as build on existing ones. That’s what a community is all about. We support one another so that we can all succeed. That’s what makes our little town a home and creates memories that the girls can take into their adulthood.”

Cutline, top photo: Girl Scouts from Breckenridge Troop 8356 volunteered at this year’s Frontier Days. Pictured, left to right, are Kodee Crawford, Gabriella Herring, Rachel Burchett, Rylee Fuller, Rihana Fuller, Maggie Wunsch, Malia Dauer and Emmari Munoz. (Photo courtesy of Kim Fuller)