A Girl Scout entrepreneur

I am 10. I started Girl Scouts because it sounded fun. It was three years before a troop was started at Mitchell Elementary School for girls my age. There was one for the older girls. So we contacted Girl Scouts of Colorado, and they set up an information night at my school. Many girls came and wanted to join Girl Scouts, so we started off with a third-grade Brownie troop consisting of 19 girls. The second-graders also formed a Brownie troop with 15 girls. That was when I was in the beginning of third grade. Now I'm in fourth grade.

The first year, we had many meetings and activities that helped us learn about friendships and how to be a Brownie. We also did lots of service projects. We did a canned food drive for the Christian Action Guild, served breakfast to veterans on Veteran's Day. We got involved with the Golden Votes project, we helped set up the Easter egg hunt in Golden and we helped with the Golden Backpack Program.

Girl Scouts is a fun way to help in the community. We've gotten involved in the Golden community as much as we can. We have a lot of fun together helping the Golden community.

Earning badges

Last fall, we bridged from Brownies to Junior Girl Scouts. My sister Ruby is in the third grade, and she is a Brownie. Sometimes, I help her, but she usually takes the lead and earns her badges on her own. Sometimes, we get to do service projects together.

Brownies learn to be helpers, and Junior Girl Scouts learn to be leaders. Also, as a Junior Girl Scout, the badges you can earn changes.

For every badge, we have different steps. The first is to learn the skill.

My troop is working on inside government, but I've already done that one on my own. I won't get another badge, but I get to do all the activities with the troop. We get to take a trip to the capitol and we will attend a city council meeting. We get to count our Golden Votes participation toward the badge.

And we're earning a troop leadership journey badge. Part of that is learning about women's role models, stereotypes and opportunities for girls.

We're also doing a business-owner badge. For the business-owner badge, we will have Cindy Pearson, who owns Golden Tutoring & Enrichment, speak with us about the steps on how to start a business.

Other interests

I'm really into magic and fantasy. I love reading fantasy books, such as Harry Potter and Percy Jackson. I also like camping and skiing, and I love to play soccer. When the spring season starts, I'll be on a team. I play soccer with Colorado Ice — the soccer league based in Golden.

Making friends and learning skills

Girl Scouts is more than selling cookies, but the cookie sales do help us learn business skills. A lot of Girl Scouts is learning lifelong skills for later in life. We also learn about friendships and leadership, and we have fun while doing it. Girl Scouts is always welcoming new members and it's inclusive for all girls. I've made a lot of friends through Girl Scouts.

I want to make it to the final level, which is Ambassador. I love it, and I want to learn all the skills that the badges represent.