Fifth grade can be pretty scary in Emporia. It’s the first step outside the elementary school, the first time since kindergarten that the other kids are mostly strangers.
Hannah Stair, Jenika Wheeler, and Laura and Jennifer Knickerbocker remember what that was like. So this February, the four high-schoolers want to start making a few introductions — or maybe a few hundred.
“What we would like to do is have all the fourth-grade girls in Emporia come meet each other for one Saturday a month throughout their fourth-grade year,” said Hannah, a 16-year-old Girl Scout. “They might be in different elementary schools, but by the time they get to fifth grade, they can say ‘Ooh, she was in that Girl Scout thing, I know her name!’”
The four girls, all Scouts, began to work out the project last summer. That’s about the time that the local Girl Scout organization began doing a “Challenge and Change” program, encouraging the girls to find a need in the community and fill it.
“I originally wanted to do a teen center,” said Laura, 15. “I switched in between five programs, but none of them was something I was really into.”
But something finally clicked. The four teens knew they loved working with younger girls. Their leader knew that there was a need to reach out to the fourth graders. And a similar experiment in a different troop had done well.
The girls made their pitch and got the go-ahead. And if energy alone was enough, the program would have started the next day.
“I’m ready to start, but our parents are kind of holding us back,” joked Jennifer, 16.
There has been a lot to plan. But some of it has played directly to their strengths. When the Scouts began asking fourth-grade girls about their interests, the most common answers included gymnastics and dancing. And 15-year-old Jenika just happened to be on the high school dance team.
Soon, activities began falling into place. Jenika offered dance. Jennifer and Laura offered sports and music. Everyone began talking about crafts and games and other possibilities. There would even be at least one sleepover before the end of the school year, maybe two.
Hannah said the group might hold a “mini graduation” at Camp EE north of town for one of the overnights. As for the other one. Hannah said, a “mall madness” night might be a possibility — if the leaders and the Flinthills Mall agree to it.
“We’ll see if the (Girl Scout) council will let us do that,” she said. “So far, the suggestions we’ve made, they’ve liked. So we hope they’ll be keen on this one.”
The first meeting is planned for Feb. 10 at the Girl Scout building. That get-together will be just fourth-grade Girl Scouts and any friends they want to bring, but by March it’ll be wide-open.
Lynn Smith, the council’s director, said she was pleased to see the girls work so hard on this.
“It has really developed the leadership skills of the kids,” she said.