Birdhouses for the New Troop on the Block
January 6, 2024
Brand new Brownie Troop 1690 from Washburn held their second meeting early in the New Year this January with a fun topic for the day: birdhouses!
“We are a troop of nine currently, and we had eight ladies participate in the activity,” says Troop 1690 Leader Heidi Froehlich Rackliffe.
Heidi became interested starting a Washburn troop once her daughter became intrigued by the Girl Scouts, which was a surprise to Heidi who says her daughter typically doesn’t enjoy getting involved in too many extracurriculars.
“I was thrilled being a previous Girl Scout myself back in the day,” says Heidi.
Upon investigating whether or not there was already a Washburn troop, Heidi discovered a group of parents and prospective leaders in the midst of launching one and the rest is history!
“Once we established the troop, the girls just kept coming in. Everyone was so excited, including the Town of Washburn themselves who actually gave us the key to the Washburn Town Office to hold our meetings,” says Heidi.
That’s when they started to get to work!
One of the troop member’s parents reached out to Heidi with a troop meeting topic idea after their neighbor had generously donated nine Lowe’s birdhouse kits.
“We thought this would be a great first activity to show the girls not only how to help out nature, but how to use their hands and build little homes for the birds too,” says Heidi.
After being presented with each of the available Girl Scout birdhouse badges, Troop 1690 settled on one to unanimously work towards completing—ensuring a girl led start to a promising group. The troop spent their meeting building and decorating homes fit for our feathered friends with paint, stickers, and various building tools.
“Seeing the finished project for the girls was great, but not as much as seeing them get up and help a fellow Girl Scout out when someone was struggling at various stages of the build,” says Heidi.
After constructing their birdhouses, the troop briefly discussed the upcoming cookie program at the end of the meeting, choosing a goal somewhere between 5 and 330 boxes of cookies. A goal that reflects the flexible and openminded nature of their troop.
Keep up the good work, Troop 1690, we can’t wait to watch you flourish throughout the year!
