Charlee Adams gets odd looks when she tells people she’s a Girl Scout.
“People say ‘Isn’t that a little kid thing?’” said Adams, who is an Evans High School freshman. “A lot of people think it’s crazy to have a high schooler be in Girl Scouts. Scouts is for everyone; it’s not just for little kids- or just selling cookies.”
Adams joined Girl Scouts when she was in first grade. Despite the fact that her mom works for the Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia, Adams stays involved with the organization because of the opportunities it’s given to her.
Yes, she sells cookies. (It’s currently cookie season. Read more here). But it’s so much more, she said.
“It’s so much fun. I’ve never thought about quitting,” she said.
She started exploring Girl Scout opportunities when she was in second grade. She spent part of a summer at Camp Tanglewood and got a taste of outdoor life.
Since then, she’s worked on multiple badges – among her favorites are the ones related to outdoor activities. Working on the outdoor cooking badge was a lot of fun because of the different ways she learned to cook, she said. She also liked the canoeing badge and “any of the outdoor skills ones.”
It was during that first camp experience that she decided she wanted to be a camp counselor, and she was a counselor in training last year.
“We only had three Brownies (girls who are 7-9 years old), but we had the best time ever,” she said.
Also last summer, she took part in a Girl Scout Destinations’ trip to Minnesota where she canoed on the lake.
This year, her Girl Scout Destinations’ trip will take her to London, England.
Girl Scouts teaches a variety of real-life skills from finance related to cookie sales to leadership learned when being the oldest in the troop, working with younger scouts at summer camp or assisting with council activities.
Adams said she’s met a lot of businesswomen who got their first business opportunity selling cookies.
Some life skills she’s learned in scouts are even more basic, she said.
“Being flexible is a good Girl Scout skill. You have to be able to adapt.” The most well-planned events can and often do go wrong, she said.
As she’s gotten older, Adams has thought of other ways to turn her Girl Scout experience into a career.
“A job I really want to do is one of the Girl Experience people who are in charge of Girl Scout Destinations. That sounds so good,” she said.
She doesn’t rule out working at the Girl Scout council on the local level or at the national level. She sees jobs of working with the cookie sales, in fundraising, working directly with scouts or possibly being CEO one day, she said.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards and is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here.
Please tell Mike his picture of the upside down sledder deserves an award, or 5🤣. That’s a great photo!!!!!!