Prospective Girl Scouts seek members to charter new troop

Two of the three prospective Girl Scouts met for the first time unofficially on Wednesday, Oct. 14, at the Scout Hut.

Acting Chartering Scout Master George Bergfeld Sr. led Miamor Martinez and Alice Schmidt through the Girl Scout Promise and began teaching them various knots. To officially charter the prospective Troop 1312G, the group needs at least two more members to meet the minimum fivescout requirement.

“We’ve been working on [the Girl Scout troop] for about a year and a half trying to get the interest in [it]… and get this going for the girls to have a place to rest,” Bergfeld said.

According to Bergfeld, Columbus previously had a Girl Scout troop around a decade ago, and the city sold the Girl Scouts Hut a few years ago. He attributed the revival efforts to Martinez. Martinez was the first girl to go through the Cub Scout program in Columbus and was the first to put in her application to charter Troop 1312G. The Cub Scout program is open to boys and girls and ends after fifth grade. Afterwards, scouts split into the Boy Scout and the Girl Scouts. Martinez said she wanted to continue learning advanced skills.

“[People should join] to have fun and learn important stuff,” Martinez said. “Try your hardest, and people around you will help you out.”

Bergfeld said that the Boy Scouts of America have a pilot program to incorporate older girls into a Boy Scout troop, but that the organizers did not want the two to intermingle. Bergfeld said he will act as Scout Master until the prospective troop can find a woman to take over.

“We want the girls to be in their [own] troop, so there’s friendly competition that way,” he said.

Bergfeld said that the money and paperwork have been completed. The only remaining obstacle is having enough participating members. For those interested, email ednabergfeld@ txun.net for more information.