CAMP FOSTER, OKINAWA, Japan— -- The Foster Girl Scouts gathered together Nov. 3 to fill backpacks at the Community Center aboard Camp Foster.
Girl Scouts of the United States of America is a worldwide program that includes approximately 10 million girls in 146 countries. Each year, Girl Scouts can earn the Global Action award as they work together to make a difference on various issues which affect girls and women all over the world. The theme for this year’s Global Action award is “Increasing Girls’ Access to Education.”
The Foster Girl Scouts gathered to pack gently worn backpacks with school supplies and toys for girls in the Kingdom of Thailand. The backpacks will be given out to kindergarten students during community relations operations during Exercise Cobra Gold which runs from January 13 to February 23.
“We try to create opportunities that are meaningful and tie into the theme while making the girls interested in something bigger than themselves,” said Col. Mariah McMillen, a volunteer with the Foster Girl Scouts and the assistant chief of staff for G-5, planning, 1st Marine Aircraft Wing, III Marine Expeditionary Force. “Tonight we talked about access to education. All of our girls go to school but in some countries that is not the case. When I went to Afghanistan, when the girls turned 10 that was usually the last year of school, if they hadn’t already been taken out. This exposed our girl scouts to the idea of the different levels of access to education.”
The Foster Girl Scouts made an assembly line with help from Marine volunteers and parents filling gently used backpacks with items such as: notebooks, a stuffed animal from home, crayons, writing utensils, a toothbrush and a mug.
“The Marines and sailors, these girl’s parents, will go out and be involved in community relations operations,” said McMillen. “Their parents come back and tell them about things that they did but now [the girls] can share with their parent about what they were able to provide for Cobra Gold as well.”