Photos from New Providence girls scouts participated in World Thinking Day on Saturday, March 23, 2019.
New Providence Girl Scouts Celebrate World Thinking Day
Girl Scouts of New Providence came together to celebrate World Thinking Day on Saturday, March 23, 2019 at Our Lady of Peach Church. About 180 girls from 13 troops ranging from grades 1st through 9th were in attendance.
World Thinking Day is celebrated annually by Girl Scouts & Girl Guides in 140 countries. It’s a day to promote international friendship and cooperation as well as to promote positive change in the world. This year’s World Thinking Day theme was Leadership. The Girl Scout Heart of New Jersey council hosts events to celebrate World Thinking Day but this year for the first time in 7 years the Service Unit of New Providence organized this event for just the town’s troops. Co-chairs Tara Cavanagh and Catherine Feuerstein, Brownie Troop 45240 leaders, put the event together. “There was a lot of interest,” said Cavanagh. “We were very excited to see how many troops from our service unit participated.”
The first half of the event was set up as an international showcase. Each troop chose a country to research and present. The troops made posters with facts on the country. Troops also showcased items of interest from the country like flags, money, stuffed animals native to the country, sports balls and equipment and other items. Each troop prepared an item of food from their country’s cuisine to share with the participants. Food samples included Irish soda bread, spring rolls, pizzelles and Swedish meatballs. The Girl Scouts had the opportunity to represent their countries at their own display and also to “travel” from country to country. At each country, Girl Scouts received a stamp in their “passport” as well as a “SWAP”. SWAPs are a Girl Scout tradition, which stands for “Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere”; they are small tokens of friendship to be exchanged between Girl Scouts.
“I thought it was amazing to see all the different countries,” said Stella Mascarina, a third grade Brownie. Another third grader Kate McClane said, “I had fun learning about all the different cultures.”
For the final hour of the event, each troop put on a short performance to showcase their chosen country. The performances included dances from Sweden, Ireland and Swaziland, skits from Denmark, Chile and Bolivia as well as an Icelandic Soccer chant and a round of animal charades from Russia.
After the performances, Katherine Mera, a 5th grade Girl Scout, said, “I think it’s fun to see a bunch of different cultures in one room.”
The goal for the Service Unit is to make it an annual or biennial event. Keira Arnold a 7th grade Girl Scout said, “I really liked it, the last time they had this we were Daisies and I’m glad we did it again.”
By Anne Looney
