Girl Scouts recruiting youth, volunteer leaders

As children return to school, Girl Scouts Heart of Central California is encouraging girls and adult volunteers to join.

The local council says Girl Scouting provides opportunities to make friends, try new things and exercise leadership skills through activities such as building robots, participating in the Girl Scout Cookie Program, playing sports and more.

In addition to learning in a hands-on, active way, Girl Scouts are encouraged to choose their activities, decide which topics they want to explore and determine how they want to go about exploring them, according to a news release from the Heart of Central California council.

“When girls lead, the world succeeds. Girl Scouts is the largest organization in the world where girls call the shots and take charge of their own future,” said Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA, in the news release. “A troop who loves roller coasters might invite an engineer to join them at their local amusement park to learn about what makes their stomach drop in real time, while another troop might be interested in what happens when you recycle a bottle, and plan a visit to their town’s recycling plant. By doing what they’re interested in and deciding how to learn more, they are developing leadership skills that aren’t offered by any other extracurricular activity.”

Girl Scouts is open to all girls from kindergarten through grade 12, and anyone over the age of 18 can become a volunteer. Girl Scout volunteers come from all walks of life; they are men, women, young professionals, retirees, college students and more. Both girls and adult volunteers can join at any time of the year.

This story was originally published August 8, 2015 at 4:36 PM with the headline "Girl Scouts recruiting youth, volunteer leaders."