Dr. Melissa Bahamonde says, “My village began to appear one mother and daughter duo at a time. Over the past nine months,
I have focused on sharing my vision with these mothers until it was no longer my vision, but the evolving collective vision of
the women/mothers in my Girl Scout Troop Village.” — Photo credit: Kristie Reynolds
region or city. Our community is called West Winds and is
situated within Zephyrhills. The leaders of our community
our seasoned Troop Leaders, some of which have been Girl
Scouts most of their lives. This extended village has guided
us through the challenges that come with starting your own
Troop and set the tone for decorum and integrity in our community.
Our community leaders have been exceptionally supportive
of our goal to guide our girls through their high school
graduation and allowed us to
attend a ceremony for a Troop
of distinguished Girl Scout
high school graduates. At the
ceremony, our little Daisy Girl
Scouts sat at tables decorated
with pictures of the graduates
in their Daisy uniforms. We all
looked on as each graduating
Girl Scout’s accomplishments
were read aloud. These young
women were exceptional Girl
Scouts and future leaders!
The relationship between the
girls and their Troop Leaders
was awe inspiring and moved
many of us to tears as we realized
that what we envisioned
-
ed on what we accomplished;
we noticed all the little STEM
seeds we planted in our little
Daisy Girl Scouts.
Leader is Dr. Melissa Bahamonde; Co-leader: Misty Kuhn;
and girls are Isabel Bahamonde, Tabitha Cowart, Karly
Reynolds, and Lucy Kuhn. — Photo credit: Kristie Reynolds
In addition to our STEM-based activities at our Troop
meetings, our girls have attended various events offered
through GSWCF. For example, they attended a robotics building
class, taught by young women, where they learned about
physics and engineering (see inGenio Hub, in Lakeland).
They participated in an event at GSWCF Camp Wai Lani and
learned teamwork and perseverance through an engineering
challenge that required them to build a roller-coaster for mar-
and information symposium at Florida Polytechnic University,
where they observed many young female scholars presenting
their passions and interests at various booths. We
also attended another event at GSWCF Camp Wildwood to
learn about caring for horses through natural science-based
activities. Further, they have gained experience with sales,
marketing, and counting money (that’s right, math) while
selling cookies. Most importantly, they have gained closeknit
friendships with girls in
various elementary schools in
our community. To be clear,
sometimes they argue and
need help sharing, and occasionally
hurt each other’s feel-
year-old girls! The difference
is the guidance they receive
from their village of moms to
solve their problems. We look
to the problem-solving and
value-driven Girl Scout curriculum
as a model and pepper
in our own wisdom. As
as a STEM focused Girl Scout
Troop, I am in awe of what we
have accomplished, and I am
excited for what is in store for
the future. Next school year
we plan to continue to develop
our curriculum within our
Troop to focus on physics,
and the universal language of mathematics. We hope to develop
this curriculum to share with other girls in our community
and promote STEM enrichment. Get a good look at these
business owners.
The truth is, they can be anything they want to be, and
they have their village to support them.
FLORIDA WOMEN MAGAZINE 813.682.9364 JULY 2019 • 15