A family of Girl Scouts is a family of voices. And that’s why there are three voices speaking this week. The Scout mom and helper is Jes Severson, a survivor of domestic violence who is raising two girls on her own while also earning a degree in Mental Health and Human Services at U ME, Augusta. Trinity is her oldest daughter and a Cadette. She joined a year and a half ago, after COVID had died back. She’s also a 7th grade honors student at Medomak Valley Middle School. The youngest, Angelia, is a Brownie. She joined about two years ago as a Daisy (for kindergarten and first graders), the first in the family to find scouting. She is now 8 and in second grade at Miller School. They are members of Troop 1936, a group of about 18 girls and young women who range from Daisy’s to Ambassadors (grades 11-12). Most come from Nobleboro, but some are from Waldoboro and Jefferson. They most Wednesdays at the Nobleboro Community Center. Projects might range from learning to sew, participating in parades (and in this coming Waldoboro Day’s celebrations in June), camping and yes, selling Girl Scout cookies. But it’s also very much about being part of a sisterhood, a community, a team while developing leadership and expanding horizons.
(Trinity) Thin Mints are definitely the most popular, but my favorites are the Peanut Butter Sandwiches and the Caramel deLites (the former Samosas).
(Angelia) Mine is the Adventurefuls because the bottom tastes like a brownie and the orange stripe tastes like caramel and salt and chocolate chips. That’s the funnest part of being a Brownie: Brownies go with brownies, and I love to eat brownies.
(Jes) I know most people wouldn’t pick this cookie, but my favorite are the Toast-Yays. They taste like French toast on a beautiful mountain looking over a lake.
(Trinity) Selling cookies is so hard! I mean, it’s really hard. I have to talk to people. At least I can go with Angelia. She’s the cute one, and she likes to talk to people.
(Jes) She’s no cuter. She’s just more social.
(Trinity) Going with Angelia, she’s the one that gets the majority of the sales. She does all the talking. But we are only a little competitive with each other. This year, in the beginning, she sold the most. Right away someone bought 18 boxes from her! But I caught up in the end. It never became fun, but it’s funner. We went to all the stores in Waldoboro…the Waldoboro Inn, Tucker’s Chevrolet, Dow’s Furniture, Borealis…we did Waldoboro and also some of the stores in Warren and Thomaston. Everyone took our cards or ordered from us. Everyone except for Key Ford in Thomaston. They said no, but it was okay with us.
(Jes) Selling cookies is hard if you don’t like to make conversations with people you don’t know. If you’re really shy, it’s difficult to look someone in the eye. So, it’s hard to be open and laughing with people you’re not comfortable with. I think selling cookies has helped build her confidence. She’s grown!
(Angelia) For me, the best part is I get to sell cookies all around town! I like going to people’s stores and asking. The man at Hillside Auto bought cookies for everybody who works there. The funnest part is eating the cookies. The hardest part is trying to beat my own goal.
(Trinity) This year we sold over 400 boxes. Each. We made it to the first tier. We worked hard because if we reached a certain level, we’d be able to go to the Museum of Science in Boston. And we made it, we made our goal. We’ll go with Girl Scouts from around New England, and after, the three of us will go to Salem because in Miss Knight’s class I learned we have a family member who was hung there in the Salem Witch Trials. Miss Knight also had a relative hung. In our family it was this dude Samuel Wordwell. He had a wife and daughter, but they lived because around then, the wife was of the governor was also accused, so of course they decided to stop hanging people so that the governor’s wife could live.
(Angelia) We’re also learning to sew. I’ve made an axolotl (a stuffed animal salamander) and a tote bag so far.
(Trinity) I made a cinch bag. I want to learn how to crochet.
(Jes) Crocheting is not my preferred activity. I have two left hands. I’d much rather do photography or other crafts. But I’m going to learn it.
(Trinity) I’ve got around 15 badges. My Memorial Day badge was the hardest because I had to hold a flag in the parade from Newcastle to Damariscotta last year. And the flag – I think it was an Army flag — was so heavy! And then we had to keep the space between us and the person in front, and that wasn’t easy either. And we didn’t have those belt thingies to hold the flag like the Cub Scouts had.
(Trinity) This is my proudest badge, the Night Owl badge. I had to stay up late and take pictures of the night sky outside at our grandparents. After, we went home and took more pictures. The moon looked like a jack-o-lantern through the leaves on the trees.
(Angelia) My favorite thing we did this year is go to Build-A-Bear in Portland and build a bear. After, we went to the hospital to give toys to the kids there that we had collected for them like stuffed animals and stuff like that.
(Trinity) Yeah, going to the hospital giving the toys was one of my favorites, too.
(Angelia) When I grow up, I want to work at Build-A-Bear. Or be an art teacher. Or be a PE teacher. Or be a troop leader for Girl Scouts. Oh, and be a chef.
(Trinity) I want either to be a special ed teacher or a pre-K teacher. My favorite person at school is Miss Gretchen. She’s an ed tech but she got a better job at the high school in the registrar’s office. I’m going to miss her so much. Ed techs are the boots on the ground.
(Jes) Our Scout leaders Miss Deb and Miss Amber are amazing. They are always calm and laid back. I think one of the things that works is that they don’t have expectations that what you’re doing has to be perfect. The expectation is that you do your best to complete the assignment.
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