Girl Scouts In The Pink Against Breast Cancer

Early on a Sunday morning, with the frost on the grass melting into our shoes, we weren’t the most gung-ho volunteers.  Only a couple of Girl Scouts, from a small troop of 7th Graders, had even made it to the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer Walkathon.  And one of them, my daughter, was dragging with a miserable head cold.

It was not an auspicious start to our first time volunteering at this kind of event.  Since my goal as a Cadette Advisor was to help the girls explore different service options so that they can figure out what kind of issues and activities interest them, I was a little worried.

Trudging behind me, I heard one whispering to the other her concerns regarding the volunteer T-Shirt.  My daughter, who seems to be mostly skipping over the self-conscious middle school stage, told her friend, “Don’t worry, we’ll never see these people again.”

As is often the case with this age group, they don’t really know what they’ll like, or not like, until they try it.  They don’t know what they don’t know.

Our volunteer assignment was at the Advocacy Tent, but our job was to wander the grounds handing out “I am walking in Honor Of _____”  stickers.  Mostly, walkathon participants were expected to write in a specific person that they were honoring or remembering.

At first, the girls followed me quietly, hesitant to approach strangers.  However, as the morning progressed, and the crowd grew increasingly more festive, the girls became less self-conscious.  They started to initiate the requests.

Finally, I could see that both girls were fully enjoying speaking up and being a part of this event.  When one of the college-aged  participants - there were quite a few sorority girls - wrote in that she as walking in honor of “boobies everywhere,” my daughter was inspired to add a couple of stickers in strategic locations on her T-shirt.

Even more telling, as we walked out, she asked if she could return next year to volunteer, but with a pink streak in her hair.

Get In The Pink

For more suggestions on how to empower girls to advocate against breast cancer, see the Girl Scouts’ In The Pink Interest Project.

Find a local event and discover what you can do to fight this disease on Make Strides Against Breast Cancer.

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Tagged as: American Cancer Society, Breast Cancer, girl scouts, In The Pink, Making Strides