Portland, Tennessee Blog

Try calling the Girl Scout leader who started a Troop last fall.

Her phone number is 452-5781. She does live in Portland but just has a Gallatin phone number.

We have earned approximately 17 fun patches and about 16 Try-Its and have camped out. The girls have had a great year.

I was involved in Girl Scouts (in another state) through the 9th grade. I have no daughters, but my older boys were involved in Boy Scouts and my youngest is not old enough yet. Scouting was a big part of our family - my dad was a Boy Scout leader most of his adult life.

Scouting - Boys or Girls, when lead by a dedicated adult, is an awesome expereince for kids. It builds confidence, gives kids practical, real-life skills and teaches personal responsibilty, which is so rare these days.

I'd like to tell MAK and anyone else who has ever had an issue with a leader of either the Boy or Girl Scouts that each of these organizations is goverened by an area council and they are usually in the phone book. Report ANY problems with a leader to them. If you do not feel you get an adequate response, go to the National level. You can probably also find the local council on-line, too. If neither of these options works, try the United Way. Boy and Girl Scouts are often subsidized by the United Way.

I hope this helps.

Let me tell you about our girl scout experience: I signed my daugther up year before last, went to the first meeting and everything seemed to be fine, the leader (who I won't name)told them about all of the exciting things they were going to be doing etc.... camping, earning badges, outings etc. First couple of meetings, there were lots of girls showing up, then it kind of dropped off no problem. The first outing was a hockey game, we paid the leader for our tickets and was supposed to meet her at will call the night of the game so she could pass out the tickets. She never showed up, no call, nothing. Finally after the game had started we asked at will call if they had any tickets for us, they could not find her name, the troop name or anything. My daughter was so upset, that they gave us free tickets to the game. At the next meeting the leader said oopps forgot all about it here's your money back. didn't think anything about us driving all the way to Nashville for her not to show up. Then the next thing was a skate party in Bowling Green that she was a no-show at. Then she had her husband run a couple of the meetings when she didn't bother to show up. I don't mind losing the money that I paid for dues and sign up costs, what I do mind is that my daugther was the one who got hurt in the deal. I would love to have her involved in scouting, but why after this experience would I want to put her thru that again?

I dont know about parental involvment being responsible for the lack of Girl Scout troops in the area. But i will say it is a huge problem in this area. I have never seen so much parental apathy. My husband and i run a boy scout den, coach basball teams, and have organized several childrens activites. Each and every time the children have been excited and wanting to participate, the largest problem being parents not wanting to put forth the effort and time. Now not all of the parents are this way, i am speaking of the ones who are. I have had to get very creative in getting the parents to participate. All of our parents are active with in our den and team now but after sign ups it will be back to square one again trying to get parents involved. This is evident not only in sporting and scouting, its also in the schools. I have a child in elementary and high school. I go to the open house at the elementary school and its packed, go to the junior high school its alot less, at the high school its minimal at best. I have actually been the only parent sitting in a class room on open house at the high school before. All of these children have so much potential and could go anywhere with their lives. Without the support of the people they trust the most they may not take a shot at it. We have to find some way to get the parents involved.