Girl Scouts has been a long-standing activity for young girls all over the United States. From selling cookies to earning badges, it has been a country-wide organization that helps out the communities and neighborhoods. Thousands of young girls are privileged to join but some don’t have the opportunity to join as financial needs don’t allow them. Now a new kind of troop has been created for homeless girls in NYC, letting young girls all across the five boroughs achieve their dreams of becoming girl scouts.
Troop 6000 is the name of the new girl scouts troop. They are no different than another troop, still going on trips, singing, drawing, dancing and of course selling those delicious cookies just about everyone has tried. They also have the goal to make a different in communities and neighborhoods just like the average troop.
What will make troop 6000 so memorable is that they are the first troop in NYC to be made up of only homeless girls. All of its members are from Sleep Inn in Queens where it has been transformed into a homeless shelter. The Sleep Inn serves 100 homeless families.
Back in February, Giselle Burgess, a homeless mother of five came up with the idea to create a troop for young girls that don’t have a home. She is part of the Queens Community Development Specialist for Girl Scouts of Greater New York.
New York Times got the first insight of the troop. Burgess had told the times that after getting more involved in the community in moving into the Sleeps Inn, she thought of the troop and ran in it by her bosses, and now it’s taken off.
Right now the troop consists of 25 members and growing. The ages range from 5 to 14 and ranks going from brownies to cadettes. Donations are being accepted in order to keep the troop going even stronger, but cost is not an issue in Troop 6000. The Girl Scouts of Greater New York is covering all costs for the girls including the membership fee, the pins and patches, and vests.
Burgess wants troop 6000 to bring awareness to all about homelessness, as happy as she is in giving young girls the opportunity to participate in girl scouts, she also wants to show motivation to young girls and to not the let the typical stereotype of homelessness bring them down. They are no different than anyone else and are making a huge difference in the world of girl scouts for many years to come.
Featured Image via Flick/Via: Marit & Toomas Hinnosaar
