Girl Scout Troop 1239 remains determined to help the community and earn badges.
The Seymour-based troop started meeting again in September after the COVID-19 pandemic halted some activities.
With the virus restrictions, Missy Casner, who leads the troop with Holly Fields, said they have to meet outdoors and wear masks.
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For their recent activity, they met outside Casner’s house to paint rocks to place on tree rounds to give to the local nursing homes and cancer center.
On Nov. 8, the girls and a few of their friends completed 15 tic-tac-toe boards. The rocks came from The Home Depot, while the tree rounds were purchased from a man in Whiteland.
A total of 150 rocks were painted.
“Even though (the board) only has nine boxes, you have to have five (rocks) for each side depending on who goes first,” Casner said. “I never had thought of that before making these.”
Some of the girls took their board home, but many of them donated their creation to seven local care facilities: Hoosier Christian Village in Brownstown and the Don and Dana Myers Cancer Center, Covered Bridge Health Campus, Seymour Place, Seymour Crossing, Lutheran Community Home and Autumn Trace in Seymour.
During a parent meeting Nov. 2, Casner said she asked whether the girls — most of whom are sixth grade and up — still wanted to work on badges or not.
“Most of the parents said their girls did, so watching the girls working together to create these tic-tac-toe boards for the care facilities to use brought tears to my eyes,” she said. “Not all the girls were present that day, but they all worked together to get all of the boards complete. I have such caring girls. Makes it all worthwhile.”
The badge they earned is based on their Girl Scout level: Daisy, outdoor art maker; Cadette, outdoor art apprentice; and Senior, outdoor art expert.
“This badge met all the requirements of being outdoors, and they learned how to make something inspired with outdoor things, like rocks and tree rounds,” Casner said.
Casner’s daughter, Macy Casner, also did the Senior game visionary badge, where one step was to imagine all of the world as a game board.
“Macy wanted to have a bigger-than-life tic-tac-toe board, so Monty (Missy’s husband and Macy’s father) spray painted a huge tic-tac-toe board on the grass, and half the girls were X’s and half the girls were O’s,” Missy said. “That was so fun and imaginative.”
Macy said she enjoyed making the tic-tac-toe boards for the nursing homes and cancer center.
“The people who live there, we thought, could use some more entertainment, rather than just playing bingo every day,” she said. “This also could give them a chance to video call family and have them play, too, with the help from others, of course. This could bring some happiness into their lives during COVID-19.”
This project isn’t the only way the troop is helping the community.
Members recently bought more than 200 toothbrushes for Mental Health America of Jackson County to give to clients as part of the Christmas Gift Lift project, and they also are supporting The Sunflower Studio’s Mammy and Pappy program that’s providing Christmas gift bags to nursing home residents and staff members.