IU Girl Scouts start fresh after rebuilding

They don’t need no stinkin’ badges.

The women of IU Campus Girl Scouts have more important things to do.

Since its founding, IUCGS has tried to fulfill its duty to serve the “community, council and campus.”

Last year, however, its mission became more challenging to achieve.

At the end of the 2008-09 school year, IUCGS lost members of its executive board to graduation, leaving the group without student leadership. Additionally, on a national level, the Girl Scouts of the USA restructured.

In the new system, Bloomington’s council was moved to Indianapolis, where it merged with others to form the title of Girl Scouts of Central Indiana.

“It didn’t go quite as smoothly as I would have hoped,” Susan Sullivan, an IUCGS adviser, said. “It was a situation where the old council was gone, and the new one was not up and running.”

Last school year, IUCGS participated in a few small activities; however, the structure was not present for the organization to be as active at it could have been, Sullivan said.

Now, with the launching of a MyINvolvement page, a return to the Student Involvement Fair after a number of years absent and a recent executive board election, the organization is coming out of a year of rebuilding and is ready to start fresh.

Chevroen Washington, newly elected president of IUCGS, is new to both the IU organization and to Girl Scouts as a whole.

“Becoming president was a lot to take in considering the fact that I was never a Girl Scout,” Washington said. “It’s more of a ‘where do we go now’ type of feeling. We’re here, but where do we go?”

Washington said most students are not aware of or misunderstand the goals of
the organization.

“Girl Scouts is more than just cookies,” Washington said.

“It’s about serving your campus, serving your community, and it’s about putting others first. Other organizations cannot say their focus is helping others.”

The organization is open to all IU students — both female and male — regardless of whether or not they have been in Girl Scouts in the past.

Freshman scout Ingrid Feustel, who attended the group’s call out meeting last month, encouraged students to look into the organization.

“It gives girls the opportunity to get out into the community,” Feustel said. “It lets you work with young girls and be a role model for younger kids.”

Feustel said the smaller size of the group will not hurt its potential effect on the
community.

“At this point, the people that are there are extremely dedicated,” she said. “Their smaller numbers are equally as effective.”

Washington said she hopes to increase campus awareness of the organization through use of social media websites such as Facebook and Twitter.  

“My vision for the club is for us to be known as a community service organization, not just as those Girl Scouts who don’t sell cookies,” Washington said.

“I want to do at least one monthly event, whether that be on campus or with other troops, so after I’m gone we have an established schedule.”