Working at home in a house overlooking a Bella Vista Lake, Marj Bernhardt might have had trouble getting to know her new neighbors. But when she moved to Northwest Arkansas from Houston a few years ago, she knew exactly how to make friends. She joined the Girl Scouts.
Bernhardt has two grown daughters and had spent years as a troop leader. But as her daughters grew, so did her experiences. When she contacted the local council, Diamonds of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas, she volunteered at the council level. She took a role training new leaders. The council was happy to get her.
It's always good to have a former leader as a trainer, she explained. Besides filling in new leaders on rules and regulations, she can also pass on first hand experience.
A veteran of many, very large Girl Scout cookie sales, Bernhardt knew she could help when cookie time rolled around.
She still goes back to Houston to help with their "mega-drop," she said. That council is so large that it takes over a stadium parking lot and brings the cookies in via 18 wheelers. It takes a lot of volunteers to bring dozens of leaders through a maze of cases and boxes as their order is filled.
Diamonds of Arkansas, Oklahoma and Texas is smaller than the Houston Council, but cookie sales are still a big deal.
"It can be overwhelming for the leaders," she explained. She volunteered to help find and mentor cookie managers for local troops. Besides the individual sales -- when girls bring home an order form and sell to family and friends -- local troops usually sell cookies at booths in front of supermarkets and other retail stores. Booth sales are very important to the troops, Berhardt explained. It's how they can earn the money to do special trips and projects with the girls. But booth sales can be difficult to manager.
Last year she volunteered to help at booths and helped train both the girls, who have to be taught when and how to approach a stranger, and also the leaders.
"You have to teach them manners," she said about the girls, even while taking care that they are always safe.
When the news came that the council was getting ready to close Camp Noark, Bernhardt was one of the volunteers who helped save the camp. They devised a way for volunteers to help with day to day activities and also formed a permanent fundraising committee. Last year, just before the camp opened, it was Bernhardt who was outside burning piles of brush to help keep the area safe for campers.
"It's just fun," she explained. "I had some big fires."
She also enjoys leading night hikes and teacher's classes at the council's "Wild and Wonderful Weekends."
"I love talking to the older girls," she said. "They get more opportunities to do different things."
As a senior scout, her own daughter planned and funded a senior trip to Universal Studios with a friend who had grown up in scouts with her. They sold a lot of cookies, Bernhardt said.
At the council's annual meeting and leadership conference July 28 at the Robinson Center in Little Rock, Bernhardt received the highest award of recognition offered by Girl Scouts, USA (GSUSA), a Thanks Badge. The Thanks Badge honors an individual whose ongoing commitment, leadership and service have had an exceptional, measurable impact.
"It was a big deal," she said. She was happy that one of her daughters was able to travel to Arkansas and be there with her.
Also honored were Charlie Adams of Springdale, Allison Clark of Cave Springs, Amy Fugere of Rogers, Stacey Phillips of Bentonville and T.A. Wyatt of Springdale. Adams, Phillips and Wyatt each received an honor pin recognizing their exemplary service in support of delivering the Girl Scout Leadership Experience (GSLE), which has had measurable impact on two or more areas of service. Clark and Fugere both received the Diamonds Rookie of the Year awards for their outstanding service in their first year with the organization.
But while Bernhardt is happy to have the recognition, she's also happy with the experience.
"I have friends all over the state," she said. Girl Scouts made what could have been a difficult adjustment, much easier.
General News on 08/15/2018