Million Collar Babies

My last official duty as a Girl Scout leader is coming up in two days. A trip to Savannah, Georgia, with 17 people. After seven years as the leader of a Junior Girl Scout troop, it's time to pass the mantle. (I just stayed at the same troop level and the girls would move to a Cadette troop as they aged out of Juniors replaced by girls moving up from Brownies.)

Looking back over my tenure and remembering all the girls that have been in my troop reminds me of just how much we did through the years. Beach camping twice, amusement parks twice, camping in the woods at least ten times, ice skating five times, skiing seven times, horseback riding once, New York City once, getting people to vote twice, participating in parades five times, etc. etc. etc. Even though I'm totally burned out on being a Girl Scout leader, after thinking about all the things we did together I feel like George Bailey.

Every trip we took, the girls were required to drop off their gear at my house at a "packing party" before the actual departure day. Even though we don't leave for Savannah until Saturday morning, tonight is the packing party. There's nothing worse than getting to our destination and a girl telling me she can't find her shirt.

"Didn't you follow the packing list when you packed your gear?"

"My mom packed for me."

"Is this your trip or your mom's trip?"

With so many people wearing identical albeit different sized shirts, I just hope the moms put names in the collars as they should. I don't even want to think about the post-trip lost-and-found.