Franklin Matters: Franklin Girls Scout bridging ceremony held on June 4, 2023

Tuesday, June 20, 2023

Franklin Girls Scout bridging ceremony held on June 4, 2023

Franklin Girl Scouts held their bridging ceremony on June 4, 2023 at New England Chapel.

Heather provided the Welcome Address

Good afternoon to our Girl Scouts, Leaders, Honored Guests, Family & Friends and welcome to our Bridging & Awards Ceremony for 2023. For those of you who do not know me, my name is Heather and I wear many hats in our Franklin Service Unit.
Heather provided the Welcome Address

First and foremost, I am a parent to two Girl Scouts here today, a 2nd year Cadette, and a 2nd year Brownie. I am also Cookie Mom & Treasurer for both of my girls’ troops, a co-leader for the Brownie troop, and most recently added on being the
Treasurer as well as the Fall Product & Cookie Mentor for Franklin Girl Scouts. I love being a part of this organization and helping foster strong, independent, caring young ladies in our community in hopes that they can go out into the world and do even better than we have.

We are so glad to have you all here today to take part in the long standing tradition of “Bridging.” For our newest Girl Scout parents, bridging is the act of crossing from one level of Girl Scouts to the next. There are a total of 6 levels before becoming an Adult member, most of these levels are maintained for 2 years. We begin as Daisies in Kindergarten & 1st grade. Brownies are 2nd & 3rd grade. Juniors are our 4th & 5th graders. Cadettes are 3 years for all of middle school 6, 7, & 8th grade. Then it is 2 years each of Seniors & Ambassadors through High School. You will see and hear from troops in each of these levels today, some will bridge, others will not, but all of them have wonderful things to share with us today.

This year it finally felt like we were truly back to Girl Scouting as normal after 2 years of makeshift scouting during COVID, and this year there were many changes within our Service Unit (SU). Our long-time Franklin GS Mentor stepped down and a new team of leaders worked hard to step up and get our Service Unit back up and flourishing after the past few years. I’d like to thank and recognize Liz Feigen for stepping up to take on that new leadership role so that our SU did not dissolve, and Sarah Clarke for her help working together with Liz to keep our SU thriving this year and bringing back so many long standing traditions. Thank you both.

Before we get to the Girls and their accomplishments, recognitions, and bridging, I’d like just a few more moments to highlight some of the wonderful and fun things we did as a whole Service Unit this year. Our Service Unit is Franklin Girl Scouts as a whole, we run under GSEMA, but operate independently for anyone wondering. This fall we came back to the Harvest Festival with a tent for crafting and recruitment trying to remind girls and parents that Girl Scouts are still here in Franklin, MA!

We of course sold cookies, as you all very well know, and had so many amazing cookie booths. We hit some incredible numbers for both personal and troop sales! I will let the troops choose to mention the personal sales, but I would like to recognize Daisy Troop 64085 as our top selling troop for the year, and Junior Troop 82351 as our 2nd highest selling troop. Great job ladies, I’m sure you will do or have already done so many amazing things with the money you earned from all of your hard work. While mentioning cookies I would at this time like to recognize all of our wonderful Cookie Volunteers who are here today.

If you are a TCC “aka Cookie Mom” would you please stand so we can thank you for all you did for us this year. We could not have a cookie season without you, so thank you from all of us for your hours of dedication to ensure the cookies were ordered & picked up, cookie booths were stocked, and all of these girls got their numbers in on time. Thank you.

If you are a TCC and also a Troop Leader or Asst Leader would you please remain standing. These volunteers work double time during cookie season, not only doing all of the things I just mentioned, but also planning and running our Girl Scouts’ meetings! They are rock stars!!! Thank you ladies, for all that you do for our girls.

Some other highlights at the SU level include multiple donations to the Franklin Food Pantry during the holidays, lots of cookies after cookie season, as well as snack items following our My Guy and Me Dance. In total over 200lbs was donated this year from our Franklin Girl Scouts. We also had a troop that donated to first responders as well as the FFP. This year our My Guy & Me Dance returned after a three years hiatus, with over 80 Girl Scouts in attendance and 75 special Guys dancing the night away!

I can tell you that was a big thing in my house, as my daughter was a 1st year Daisy in 2020 when the Dance was canceled just a few days before it was supposed to take place. Now 2nd year Brownies (that’s 4 years of GS) were finally able to go!!! Franklin also held World Thinking Day at the FPL as a public event for the first time ever which was a wonderful time.

We participated in Franklin’s Earth Day Cleanup, we had a super fun Roller Skating Party at Roller Kingdom, and most recently marched in the Memorial Day Parade. It has been such a wonderful year seeing our Girl Scouts back out front and center in the community, and we hope to do even more next year to let Franklin know we are here, and we are SO much more than just cookies.

Last on my agenda this afternoon is to recognize all of our INCREDIBLE volunteers who are here today as Leaders. Without our leaders and assistant leaders, we would not have Girl Scouting, period. These women put in hours of work on top of everything else they have going on to dedicate their time to these young ladies sitting in front of me. They plan meetings and execute them, they learn songs and games that have been around for decades, and keep so many Girl Scout traditions alive and moving on to future generations.

Most of them also volunteer at the Service Unit level to plan events like the dance, and this bridging ceremony today. They are amazing and hard-working and deserve to be recognized. If you are a leader, co-leader, or assistant leader of a troop, would you please stand and remain standing, we’re going to play a little game. If you have been a leader for at least 2 years, please remain standing. If you have been a leader for at least 4 years, please remain standing. 5 years….6 years….8 years…10 years….12 or more years.

Thank you for your leadership and dedication to Girl Scouting in Franklin, and for anyone here today that wants to get more involved but does not want to lead a troop, please reach out to any one of us here today. Parent volunteers are so important not only at the troop level, but also at the town/service unit level. We would love parents to help with planning some of our bigger town events, and getting to know you!

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Tonight we would like to show our gratitude to 2 amazing volunteers for their dedicated service to our Franklin Girl Scouts, Roni Doherty, and Judi Cook.

● Judi Cook started volunteering when her granddaughter was in Daisies. She joined as a leader for the troop as 2nd year Daisies and remained a leader through 2 years of Brownies, 2 years of Juniors, 3 years of Cadettes, and all 4 years of High School staying with the troop for a total of 12 years. During this time Judi also took on the additional role of becoming the Franklin Girl Scouts Treasurer, and served in that role for at least 7 years. She was also the designated CORI Volunteer for our Service Unit. At this time we would like to recognize and thank you Judi for your 12 years of service to Girl Scouting in Franklin. Would you please come up and accept this recognition on behalf of everyone here today.

● Roni Doherty has been a staple in Franklin Girl Scouts longer than some of us have even lived in town. Roni has been a registered Girl Scout for the past 22 years, and is currently a Lifetime Member. Over the course of those 22 years she has led troops of Brownies for 6 years, Juniors for 2 years, Cadettes for 3 years, and the High School Seniors/Ambassadors for 9 years. Roni joined and began leading a Brownie troop before her own daughter had even joined Girl Scouts, and remained a leader for 7 years after her daughter graduated from High School. Beyond leading her own troops, Roni has received several awards from our Council. In 2010, Roni was awarded the Honor Pin from Girl Scouts of Eastern MA, in 2015 she was recognized for 5 years of Sustained Service, and in 2019 she received the Appreciation Pin.

In 2019 Roni took her service beyond the troop level and began serving as Franklin’s Service Unit Coordinator. The Service Unit Coordinator is the key contact person for GSEMA to get information to each town’s troops. And the point person for troops to go to with questions about policies and procedures from GSEMA. She’s like the COO of Girl Scouts in Franklin. So it’s a big job, and Roni led us for years. She was knowledgeable, accessible, hard-working, and dedicated to making sure that leaders were informed, and the girls had a fantastic experience. This year, Roni has officially passed the torch on her leadership role. And while we know she has stepped down, we also know that Girl Scouts will always be a part of her life in some capacity, and that she is always one of our sisters.

Thank you Roni, for your 22 years of service and leadership to Girl Scouting in Franklin. Would you please come up and accept this recognition on behalf of everyone here today.

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Bridging Ceremony by group