Girl Scout Troop 321 members hold final event
Girl Scout Troop 321 members are (right to left) Mya Bell (13 years), Kyah Chaney (13 years), Kathryn Cluff (seven years), Trinity Edenfield (six years not pictured), Sydney Hamilton (13 years), Madalyn Ross (13 yrs), Kendyll Young (13 years).
On July 16, Girl Scout Troop 321 of Hillsboro held their last event as the seven-member troop made up of seniors bridged to adults.
This is a rare accomplishment in the Girl Scout world to have seven girls who stayed in the program until they graduated high school. Five girls were Scouts from kindergarten to 12th grade, one was a Scout for seven years, and another for sic yrs.
All seven ladies are attending college in the fall. Three of them completed the Gold Award, which is over a yearlong project, with very stringent guidelines and must be sustainable in their community. These Scouts were Kyah Chaney, Sydney Hamilton and Madalyn Ross.
Troop 321 took time to honor their past leaders, Becky Sanderson, Linda Chaney and Katharine Koogler, current leaders Lara Hamilton, Kristi Cluff, Christina Ross and Marsha Williams, Highland County Girl Scout program coordinator.
As the girls performed the bridging to adult candle lighting ceremony, they then crossed the bridge, received their bridging pin, certificate and removed their Girl Scout vest for the last time, blowing out their candle.
Troop leader Christina Ross said, "It was a very moving experience, to see these young ladies who are all so accomplished take their Girl Scout skills and apply them now in their lives as college students and in the adult world. To say I am proud of them is an understatement. Achieving this length of time in Girl Scouts is not easy with the high school pressures of sports, 4-H and FFA, working a job in which all of them were in these types of extracurricular pull at their time and energy, so sticking together and all seven finishing says a lot for their troop connection." (Girl Scouts are shown with a cake made by Batter Up Bakery in Leesburg.)
