Thursday, Oct. 29, 2009

Troop 1260 Daisies mark founder's birthday

by Clarke Davis

While the girls colored and cut out paper dolls one recent Tuesday night, their leader, Lauren Bahr, read to them the story of Juliette “Daisy” Low, who founded Girl Scouts in 1912.

Photo by Clarke Davis

Daisy troop leader Lauren Bahr shows a couple of the Daisies pictures of Juliette Low, the founder of Girl Scouts.

The girls were making “Daisy”
dolls in celebration of the
founder’s birthday, which will
be Oct. 31. Before this project
got under way, the girls lined
up and each received their
official Daisy Girl Scout pin
signifying their membership
into Girl Scouts.

In return for each pin, Lauren received a hug.

Daisy Troop 1260 meets
weekly, alternating between Ozawkie and Meriden, and
includes all of the Jefferson
West school district. These
are the kindergarten and
first-grade girls, the entry
level, but it almost didn’t exist.

Lauren was aware of the Brownies and Juniors, the older groups, but when her 5-year-old daughter, Mc-Kensie, wanted to join there wasn’t any group for her age. There was no Daisy leader.

“That wasn’t cool,” she said.

She learned there wasn’t anyone who would take on the job and then was confronted with the question: “Would you like to be it?”

She soon had a job and now has 13 Daisies earning patches and preparing to “bridge over” to Brownies.

There is no enrollment date, she said. Girls can join at anytime during the year and get involved in their activities. There’s a $12 fee for insurance and $10 each year for dues.

The troop is starting from scratch without startup funds, but cookie sales will be held during November that are expected to bring something for their treasury.

She said proceeds from that will help keep dues low and help those who can’t afford it. She doesn’t want money to be a factor in keeping a child from joining.

Along with their weekly meetings, more than half of the members have signed up for an overnight outing at the Great Wolf Lodge near Kansas City in January.

Service to the community is also a lesson learned in being a Daisy and these girls will provide aid to two organizations.

They participated in World Food Day and will continue to collect food through January for the Jefferson County Service Organization. Starting in February the girls will adopt the Jefferson County Humane Society and look for ways they can be of service to the animal shelter.

Bahr is a native of Topeka and was a Kaw Valley Girl Scout for four years. The area is now part of Girl Scouts of Northeast Kansas and Northwest Missouri. Troop 1260 is part of Unit 715 that covers most of Jefferson County. The leaders from the various troops meet the third Thursday of each month in Oskaloosa.

Lauren does medical billing for a Lawrence chiropractic firm and her husband, Jarad, is employed at the Target Distribution Center. They also have a 13-month-old son, Brodie.