Troop 2280 Establishes in Glasgow

Local Girl Scout Troop 2280 celebrated Girl Scout Week, March 6 through 12, on March 7 with cupcakes during their bi-monthly meeting on March 7. The troop, which is led by Glasgow's Hayley Young and Brianna Leader, has been in existence since September 2021, and the group of girls have been meeting one to two times a month since at the Connection in Glasgow.

The troop was originally planned to get underway in the fall of 2020 but due to the COVID pandemic, plans were changed to have it start up during this school year. At the beginning, only five girls were part of the troop, however it has since grown to nine with a troop from Nashua merging in. Glasgow's Rosa Brandt, Quinn Young, Kinley Overbey, MacKenzie Bigelbach, Hailey Vigil and Tiffany Plummer, as well as Nashua's Jessa Ottun, Hailea Hill and Addison Ottun all now participate, learn and are working towards their badges.

Just after her oldest daughter started kindergarten, Young started inquiring and asking other moms if there was a Girl Scout troop in town. When it was determined there wasn't, she took the steps necessary to get one established.

"I needed at least one other adult to help, it didn't take much to convince Brianna to join me," explained Young. "I chose to help Hayley with a troop for a lot of different reasons. I want there to be lots of healthy and positive choices for our kids to be able to participate in," explained Leader.

Due to the range in ages of the girls, the troop consists of three levels, Daisy, Brownie and Junior, with all of the girls learning the Girl Scout Law, Promise and basics with the goal of earning badges.

"Of course, so far in our short journey, the girls have loved selling cookies. Tasting them was probably the highlight!," said Young. "It's been so fun watching them learn, set their goals, and make decisions about how they'd like to spend their money from cookie sales." The girls have decided to use the funds they raise for a fun night out consisting of swimming and pizza with the extra money going towards purchasing supplies for the meetings.

With door-to-door cookie sales completed, the girls will soon host their first cookie sales booth in town, and will also have the opportunity to take a tour of the ambulance barn, have an introduction to first aid as well as go camping.

"One of the main Girl Scout traditions is to leave a place better than we find it. We will also pick an area of town and clean it up later this spring," explained Young.

Girl Scouts is an 110-year-old organization founded by Juliette Gordon Low in 1912. "[Girl Scouts] teaches the girls how to be a part of something bigger than themselves and learn how to be well-rounded, use manners, be responsible and opens their eyes to things they may not otherwise by subjected to. It also creates healthy camaraderie and hopefully lifelong friends with like-minded girls," stated Leader. "It's been a great experience! I'm so glad I decided to join Girl Scouts as a leader. I loved it as a young girl and it's still rewarding as an adult. We've been so luck to have the Connection and Pastor Tom open their doors to us!," expressed Young.

The troop is always welcoming new members. If interested, contact Young at 406-853-0112 or Leader at 406-861-4119.