Instilling Leadership, Confidence, and Kindness Girl Scouts Daegu Troop 821

Instilling Leadership, Confidence, and Kindness

Girl Scouts Daegu Troop 82100

By: Ashley Courts, Girl Scouts Overseas Committee Chair Daegu Troop 82100

Are you looking for a safe place for your daughter to gain leadership skills, explore Korean culture, and make new friends along the way in Area IV? It doesn't matter if you're new to the area or have been here for a while, USA Girl Scouts Overseas Daegu Troop 82100 is always ready to meet new friends. Our troop consists of girls from Camp Walker, Camp Carroll, and Busan. The ages of our members can range anywhere from Kindergarten all the way through 12th grade. The main goal within our troop is to ensure our Girl Scouts are given opportunities to learn to lead with compassion, kindness, and honesty. 

From September to May, our levels of Girl Scouts gather weekly to work on age appropriate life skills, which we call “badge work”. We guide our girls through various lessons that expose them to things such as finance, leadership, STEAM, and decision making, just to name a few areas. Over the years, our troop has developed relationships to create a network of community partners. The partners support our Girl Scouts by providing hands-on experiences that align with the lessons we learn through badge work. Daegu Advanced Water Purification Plant Tour, a 3D printing lesson with Camp Walker Community Activities Center, a self defense class with a local TaeKwonDo instructor, and a first aid class with a former flight nurse are just a few of the incredible opportunities our girls have been given through USA Girl Scouts. We aim to teach skills that can be useful to them as they get older. And of course, you can’t forget about camping and cookies! We try to camp twice each year and our annual cookie sales run from the beginning of February to the middle of March.  

Not only are we striving to build confidence in these girls, we also want to make sure that we are taking advantage of our very special situation of living overseas. Over the past two years, Daegu Troop 82100 has formed a strong relationship with Korean Girl Scouts in Daegu, as well as our sister troop from Daegu International School, Troop 82199. During these two years, we have shared many cultural experiences with each other. Korean Girl Scouts have invited us on multiple trips around Daegu to get to know our region and host nation a little better. Our troop was able to experience a riverboat ride down the Nakdong River and learn about the unique ecosystem in our area at the Dalseong Ecological Park. Our groups also made a stop at The Arc, which is an iconic symbol of our city. For our next tour with Korean Girl Scouts, we were taken to Otgol Village. Here the troops learned about the history of our area and even tried our hands at making rice cake, using a hammer! 

Our troop has also been able to share a few fun American traditions with our sister troops, such as a Polar Express Pajama party and good old fashion BBQs. Our Polar Express party was filled with laughter, minute-to-win-it style games and of course a lot of hot cocoa. This was Korean Girl Scouts’, and their leaders, first time at a pajama party. On April 22, 2023, we held an Earth Day Event where we spent the day with our two sister troops learning to make seed bombs, sharing important information about honey bees, as well as learning how to line dance! We dressed up in our best “Wild West” attire and finished our day with hot dogs, baked beans, and potato salad, complete with sweet tea and lemonade. So many great memories were created that day for everyone involved. 

Along with fostering leadership skills, community service is one of our top priorities. Our troop participates in many community events, such as Fire and Safety Week. During this time our troop helps the Area IV Fire Department pass out important life-saving fire safety information to the children living on Camp Walker. We end the week selling our famous Girl Scout lemonade at the annual Fire and Safety Community Event. A beautiful rock garden at the Camp Walker Community Activity Center spotlights our creative contributions to our community. This is a great way to share positivity with our friends and community too! If you are in the area, stop by and grab a rock or leave one! Our troop has also formed a friendship with Aehyang Children's Welfare Center in Gumi. We have held donation drives for hygiene products and snacks during our Polar Express Party. And delivered these items right after Christmas. During the dropoff, we were able to read books and make crafts with the children who reside there. So many smiles and laughs were shared that day. 

Area IV is an incredible place to live and an amazing community to be a part of. We hope that by continuing to encourage our Girl Scouts to lead with confidence and kindness, we can foster a sense of accomplishment in our girls, so that they can feel capable of making a change not only in their community, but the world! If you are interested in joining our troop or learning more about us, please send an email to Daegugirlscouts@usagso.org. We can’t wait to meet you!  

If you’re not in Daegu but want to learn more about USA Girl Scouts Overseas, find your troop on the troop locator at https://mygs.girlscouts.org/search;type=TROOP. We want you to join USA Girl Scouts here in Korea to build the connections and skills that last a lifetime!