American Heritage Girls -- Our New Troop!

Our church is the proud new owner of an American Heritage Girl Troop! We are pleased to be able to offer American Heritage Girls Troop right alongside our Boy Scout Troop. We are having our meetings at the same place, day & time as the BSA so that parents can have kids in both programs on one night, save gas, and possibly feel more freedom to volunteer for either Troop.

American Heritage Girls is a Christ-centered scouting program available to girls ages 5 to 18.  AHG is a non-profit organization dedicated to the mission of building women of integrity through service to God, family, community and country. "The small, all-girl unit, within the AHG Troop structure, provides a nurturing environment ripe for learning and the building of positive relationships. The AHG program grows as a girl grows. The program structure allows a girl to be involved from age 5 to well into adulthood. This longevity of experience and consistency of messaging allows the program to be life changing to its members. Remembering that God has assured us His presence throughout our journey, we will endeavor to teach our nation’s daughters of the love of the Father through the AHG ministry." (quoted from AHG website.)

When Jo-Jo was about 6 years old, I started looking into scouting programs available for girls. The things that I was looking for in a program we not there, but there was a lot of things that we were looking to avoid. I had found AHG and looked into getting her involved with a local troop, but local was clear in another state. So, I looked into starting a troop at my then home church, but that didn't look feasible either, so I let it go.

Then 6 years later, April 2011, our Boy Scout Scout Master asked me if I had heard of American Heritage Girls. I told him of my research years ago, and liked what they had to offer. He asked if I would be willing to start up a troop in our church. after prayer and discussion with my husband, we said yes. He introduced my to JS, who I already knew from the girls field hockey class, and we began talking about it. Our Boy Scout Scout Master had already been discussing the possibility of our church doing the AHG program. She was already on board, and so the planning slowly began. We decided that we would do this together as Co-coordinators. It really didn't pick up speed until after the 2012 year began, because our family thought we might be moving and we were not sure where to at the time. God has other plans, so here we are starting an AHG Troop. Woo Hoo!

We got our Charter approval after 6 months of preparation, on Friday, July 6th. Most of the preparation was learning about the program, gaining interest, and preparing the deacons and the church for owning the Troop. Then the next few months was spent reading and planning the actual Troop and having to wait to charter until June. That was a long wait. You can charter mid-year, but the best start time for us was a fresh new year.

Our Troop had our first official Troop Board Meeting last night and it was awesome to see how passionate the other ladies are about our Troop. It has been my friend and co-coordinator JS and me meeting weekly for about 6 months preparing, so to get feedback from others was awesome! We made a few needed changes and we are ready to move forward with training.

We will be having training for the next few weeks for the board and then Unit Leaders. We are so excited to finally start the registration process for girls to join. If you are interested in finding a Troop in your area please visit American Heritage Girls website and find a Troop on the Locator Map. They would be more that happy to have your family. Read about AHG in the News.