Joann Guerrini and her sister, Lynn Earle, have been the leaders of the St. Lawrence Parish Brownie and Junior Girl Scout Troops for quite some time. Earle has headed her junior troop for 10 years, while Guerrini has been the Brownie troop leader for the last four years.
“We want people to be aware that we do a lot of community service with the girls,” Guerrini said. “We want the people of Weehawken to realize all that we do.”
And the girls certainly accomplish a lot for a small troop of 12 youngsters from first through sixth grades. They constantly help the township’s senior citizens, especially serving at their regularly scheduled pancake breakfasts. They collected baby bundles, complete with all the necessities for newborns, to be distributed for the Hudson Cradle’s Boarder Babies. They made bibs for the newborns at St. Mary’s Hospital in Hoboken.
The young ladies even helped out a woman in need, by cleaning out her yard.
And in honor of Girl Scout Week, they recently put together an array of artistic works that were proudly displayed at the Weehawken Free Public Library’s Historic Room.
The arts and crafts projects, created as part of their required badge work, were all well thought out and well designed, brightening up the library, which made the library’s director, Philip Greco, very proud.
“We’d love to have more displays like this,” Greco said. “But this was a very fine display and very well done. Some of the children involved with making the display were once members of our Story Time Hour, so that makes me particularly proud.”
The Brownies and Junior Girl Scouts also made “Boo-Boo Bunnies,” out of washcloths, to be given to the children involved in the library’s current Story Time Hour.
“Our girls can definitely relate to the kids who are currently in the Story Hour,” Guerrini said. “This was their chance to give back.”
Also on display in the library was a photo display of the countless service projects that were performed by both troops.
Guerrini said that the young ladies are eager to do whatever they can to help the community, even outside the required activities to receive their badges.
“Some of the things they do are part of the requirements,” Guerrini said. “But there are other activities that the girls just think up on their own. Like, we just made decanters filled with bath salts out of milk containers. People were very impressed with how professional the containers looked.”
Yes, these Girl Scouts also sell cookies, but the funds received from cookie sales are not substantial.
“We only get back 50 cents per box, so we have to sell a lot of cookies to do our different projects,” Guerrini said. “We want to keep them very active.”
Guerrini said that there are times that Girl Scouts becomes more than activities and earning badges.
“The other day, we just had a discussion about dreams,” Guerrini said. “And the girls got very emotional. I didn’t expect that to happen. We learn a lot of different things, about self esteem, about independence.”