Boy Scout Troop 274 Set To Award Two Scouts With Eagle

Boy Scout Troop 274 Set To Award Two Scouts With Eagle

On Jan. 13, Jake Schwarzhaupt and Mark Beauregard, members of Avon Boy Scout Troop 274, will hold a Court of Honor celebrating their award of the rank of Eagle Scout.

Eagle Scout is the highest rank in Boy Scouting, and to achieve it Scouts must complete extensive community service requirements and at least 21 merit badges, ranging from cooking to citizenship to financial management. The culmination of a scout's community service in their rise to Eagle Scout is their Eagle Project, a service project which benefits the community and requires leadership, planning and execution in cooperation with a mentor and a project sponsor. Many scouts from the troop come together to help an Eagle with his service project, thus fulfilling service requirements themselves.

Jake Schwarzhaupt built a gaga pit at the Sycamore Hills Recreation Area in Avon to fulfill his Eagle Project requirement. Gaga is a fast-paced game similar to dodge ball played in an octagonal pit. Jake conceived of this project himself and presented it to Ruth Checko, the Director of Avon Parks and Recreation. He wanted to build something which benefitted the town and provided a lasting addition to the area near the playground. He hopes it will provide a fun activity for the youth of Avon for years to come.

Mark Beauregard's Eagle Project was completed at Winding Trails Recreation Area and it focused on conservation and science education, his career fields of interest. The project was to create coverboards, which simulate a rotting log that is host to many different animals. Mark's project was two-fold. The first part is a Citizen Science Coverboard Education Trail along Winding Trails' Pond Trail which contains five coverboards along with some education panels about the creatures which can be found underneath them. The second part consists of seven conservation coverboards in different ecosystems throughout the Winding Trails property which will be monitored by Winding Trails Naturalist Judy Witzke, and that data will be sent to the DEEP.

Jake is a freshman majoring in Business Administration at the University of New Hampshire Peter T. Paul College of Business and Economics. Prior to graduating from Avon High School in 2017, Jake served as the Senior Patrol Leader of Troop 274 and is a Vigil Honor Member in the Tschitani Lodge of the Order of the Arrow, Scouting's National Honor Society.

Mark is a junior at CREC's Academy of Aerospace and Engineering High School in Windsor, CT, and hopes to attend either the US Naval Academy or the US Coast Guard Academy to study Oceanography. Mark is the current Senior Patrol Leader of Troop 274. Both Scouts have enjoyed spending summers working together at June Norcross Webster Scout Camp in Ashford, CT.

BSA High Adventure trips and Troop Big Trips are also a vibrant part of the Troop 274 community, which is currently over 85 scouts strong. Mark attended the back country hiking and canoeing Maine BSA High Adventure as well as Florida Sea Base, a sailing and ocean exploration BSA High Adventure trip. Jake's adventures with Troop 274 have taken him to Philmont Scout Reservation in New Mexico to backpack more than 100 miles in the Rocky Mountains, Florida Sea Base, the Boy Scout National Jamboree, Alaska, backpacking in Yosemite National Park and the summit of Mt. Whitney (elevation of 14,505 feet).

The Eagle Court of Honor ceremony will be held Saturday, January 13, 2018 at 2:00 at West Avon Congregational Church. All Avon Troop 274 families and past Eagle Scouts are welcome to attend.

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Elgin teen's Eagle Scout project: Make people feel better with his music

Elgin teen's Eagle Scout project: Make people feel better with his music

To earn an Eagle Scout badge, Noah Akemann sought to do something different from the typical construction and beautification projects many Scouts undertake.

An upright bass player at Larkin High School's Visual and Performing Arts Academy, Noah wanted to use his musical talents to give back to Advocate Sherman Hospital in Elgin, which helped him as a baby.

He and other members of Larkin's string quintet have been playing Christmas-themed music in the hospital's main lobby this month to elevate the mood of patients and visitors and help with memory improvement and relaxation.

"I wanted to do something different that meant something to me," said Noah, 17, a senior who has been playing bass since fourth grade.

"(Research has) found that music stimulates part of the brain that helps memory. My goal is to help with memory loss and rehabilitation, and this is enjoyable because a lot of people like music. It helps them relax. I can look up and see the faces and see the smiles and joy it brings."

Noah's parents are involved in health care and many family members were born at Sherman, which is why he chose it for his project.

"We have family histories of Alzheimer's and dementia, so it struck a cord," said Noah's mother, Kelly Akemann, an Elgin nurse whose husband is a firefighter/paramedic in Morton Grove.

Nearly 18 years ago, Noah was born in Sherman's Family Birthing Center. A complication due to pre-eclampsia forced doctors to induce delivery when he was at 36½ weeks. Noah was kept in the Special Care Nursery for a week until he could breathe on his own.

Part of the project for Boy Scout Troop 128 at Epworth United Methodist Church in Elgin involves organizing and managing the schedule with other string players and working with hospital officials.

Jose Macias, Sherman's manager of development, said the hospital has a musicians care program designed to enhance patient care.

"Once a week we have the Elgin Symphony Orchestra quartet play one hour in the cafeteria and one hour on patient floors," he said. "In addition to that, we have a therapeutic musician who plays a harp for individual patients once a week.

"What Noah can bring is something different, something fresh with his age group. While the music can be for the patients, it's also (for) everyone in the hospital. It does bring them to a happy place. It's a different way for that patient to experience the healing process."

Noah plans to record CDs of the quintet's holiday music to distribute to nursing homes to play at their facilities.

"We've prepared a few classical, a few modern, and a few movie soundtracks," he said.

It is being recorded and produced by Noah's grandmother, Donna Akemann, who volunteers with Children's Theatre of Elgin, which was co-founded by Noah's grandfather, Peter Akemann.

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Four earn Eagle Scout rank

Four earn Eagle Scout rank

After years of hard work and dedication, four Boy Scouts became a part of the 4 percent nationally who have earned their Eagle Scout Award.

Bellevue Troop 231 did not just become a family to the Scouts, they said, but a place where the four boys learned valuable skills.

“I don’t believe we’ve ever had four in one year,” Scoutmaster Michelle Foss said. “I’m really excited. I’m really proud of them.”

Foss took over as Scoutmaster last November and she said she was proud to see her Scouts flourish.

“It means a lot. Not a lot of people get their Eagle Scout awards,” said one of the newest Eagle Scouts, Joey Whitmore.

Whitmore is a sophomore at Bellevue West High School and one of the four from Troop 231 who earned the award.

Whitmore joined Scouts just five years ago and for his Eagle Scout project, he refurbished tables at Beaver Lake.

A junior at Gross Catholic High School, Galen Talkington earned his award this year after being in Scouts since the second grade. For his project, Talkington made vegetable and compost boxes for the Eastern Nebraska Veterans Home.

“I’ve been from Tiger Scouts to Cub Scouts all the way up to here, and it’s been a long time coming,” Talkington said.

Cole Pasteka and Tyler Henningsen teamed up to complete their Eagle Scout project as the two built perches for birds for the new Holland Meadowlark Amphitheater at the Henry Doorly Zoo in Omaha.

“I love the zoo a lot,” Pasteka said.

“I love nature and when I heard about it I thought it was the perfect opportunity.”

Pasteka, a junior at Bellevue West, has been in Scouts for about eight years, he said.

Throughout those years, Pasteka said he knew he wanted to go after the award, even if it did create a lot of stress.

“It felt like I let some weight off,” he said. “It felt so good. I was like ‘hallelujah,’ because I’ve been waiting for this.”

Henningsen, a junior at Papillion-La Vista South High School, said he is proud of his accomplishment.

“It’s kind of surreal. It’s an important accomplishment,” he said. “In nine years of scouting, people don’t realize all the stuff you have to do so I’m really proud.

“I’m getting that feeling like ‘Wow, I’m growing up.’”

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The First Girl Scout: Portraits of Daisy Gordon Lawrence

The First Girl Scout: Portraits of Daisy Gordon Lawrence

How often is a preteen celebrated as a genuine pioneer? In 1912, in Savannah, Ga., an 11-year-old girl named Daisy Gordon earned that lofty, evocative appellation when she became the first-ever Girl Scout in the United States.

Daisy's aunt, Juliette Gordon Low—also known as "Daisy" to family and friends—was the founder of the Girl Scouts of America. Juliette was inspired to start the organization during a trip to the United Kingdom in early 1912. When she returned to Savannah in March of that year, she resolved to create a new type of sorority for girls modeled on the Boy Scout movement she'd witnessed and so admired in England. On March 12, 1912, at a "Girl Scout'' party at Juliette's Savannah home, her niece Daisy was the first to sign the new organization's membership register. The rest, as they say, is history.

Here, more than a century after the founding of the Girl Scouts of America—an organization that today boasts more than 3 million members and has been central to the lives of more than 50 million American girls and women through the years—LIFE.com pays tribute to the GSA with a gallery of pictures featuring none other than "the first Girl Scout," Daisy Gordon herself.

In its November 22, 1948 issue, LIFE—a magazine as proudly and forthrightly patriotic as the Girl Scouts themselves—ran a feature titled, like this gallery, "The First Girl Scout." The subtitle of the article, meanwhile, was even more enticing—"She shows off a new uniform and some old tricks"— and indicated what was to come: namely, pictures of Daisy Gordon Lawrence (47 years old and married when the article appeared) wearing new Girl Scout duds while also showing contemporary Girl Scouts how to tie knots, start a fire with a "firebow" and work semaphore flags.

"Girl Scouts," LIFE wrote, "have proved an important force in the nation's youth. Today they can get proficiency badges in anything from journalism to international affairs. When Daisy was a Scout, the program was more violent. Her guidebook taught how to stop runaway horses ('run as fast as the horse and throw your full weight on the reins'), how to shoot guns, and fly airplanes ('it is best not to go out in a hurricane.') 'Rubber,' it warned, 'causes paralysis.' To make First Class Scout a girl had to 'show a list of 12 satisfactory good turns' or 'swim 50 yards in her clothes.' Daisy stayed Second Class.'"

Daisy remained active in the GSA for years; in 1958 she co-authored a book on her aunt, titled Lady of Savannah: The Life of Juliette Low. Daisy Gordon Lawrence died in Seattle in 1982.

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Why is the Girl Scout Barbie doll so controversial?

Why is the Girl Scout Barbie doll so controversial?

Ever since Mattel announced that Barbie would soon be wearing a Girl Scout uniform, consumer groups have been pushing back against it. The $2 million deal also includes a patch for Daisy and Brownie members, making it the first-ever patch to have a corporate sponsorship.

The Barbie tie-in with Girl Scouts was first announced in August 2013, and now that the dolls arriving in stores this week, the controversy is heating up.

“Holding Barbie, the quintessential fashion doll, up as a role model for Girl Scouts simultaneously sexualizes young girls, idealizes an impossible body type, and undermines the Girl Scouts’ vital mission to build ‘girls of courage, confidence and character,’” Susan Linn, director of Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood told the Associated Press.

While many hold gripes about Barbie’s reputation for sexualizing the different career uniform she wears (in her 55 years she has been outfitted for more than 135 different jobs–most with pink accents or accessories), others think putting Barbie in the Girl Scout uniform is a great way to get girls involved with the organization.

“I think if girls didn’t identify with Barbie, it might create a problem for us as parents,” one mom said on the Today show, “but girls love them. They represent what they love, it’s a win-win.”

Girls today “are ready to lead,” Chávez told Parade in March. “I see girls lobbying town hall to build a safer crosswalk for their elementary school. My world, when I was a kid, was my backyard. Their world is the globe.”

To bring the partnership full circle and tell girls they can “be anything,” Mattel worked with the Girl Scouts to create a new “Be Anything, Do Everything” patch. In order to get the patch, Daisy and Brownie scouts must complete a booklet that focuses on different career paths. Before they qualify for the patch, scouts must match character traits with the careers they’re best suited for and come up with an idea for a Girl Scout badge and its possible real world applications. However, Girl Scouts do not need to purchase a Barbie in order to get the patch–they can download the booklet online and then either download the patch upon completion or fill out an online form to have one sent to them.

“We are tying the fun girls have playing with Barbie to an opportunity to gain insight into the careers of today and tomorrow, through patches and discovery along the way,” Girl Scouts of the USA CEO Anna Maria Chávez said in a statement. 

Even though the patch and booklet aim to educate Girl Scouts about future career choices, some are concerned about having branded insignia on the Girl Scout uniform.

“This is product placement at its worst,” New American Dream’s executive director Wendy Philleo said. “Our children are already being bombarded by marketers’ pitches at stores, at home, online, on TV, and in school.”

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(VIDEO) Christmas spirit lights up in Rockaway Borough, literally

(VIDEO) Christmas spirit lights up in Rockaway Borough, literally

ROCKAWAY - Christmas officially arrived in the borough with the annual tree lighting on Tuesday, Dec. 5.

The event was organized by the Rockaway Borough Parks & Recreation Committee, and held at the gazebo of the Rockaway Borough Public Library.

“This is an ‘all hands on deck event,’ we have tremendous support from the Municipal Building support staff helping secure the tree from the Wasko tree farm, which they donate every year, and also handing out ornaments,” said Rob O’Connor, recreation director.

“The library staff opens their doors and helps in every way needed and our DPW staff is critical in getting the tree set-up, running the electricity, bringing tables for the hot chocolate and cookies and also making sure the area is clean and ready to go. The fire department and police department also provide their support and assistance for this great community event.”

This annual tree lighting ceremony goes back approximately to 1995, when the library gazebo was first built. And since its creation, the event has brought thousands of residents to the library gazebo to celebrate the start of Christmas. Every telephone pole on Main Street carried a large light-up snowflake as well.

This year, about 150 residents came to see the tree light up.

 “This tree lighting is pretty cool,” said borough resident Sal Ciullo, who was there with his 9-year-old son Jayden.

 “They do a lot of stuff at the library. It’s good for the kids and gets them excited for the holiday.”

 Jayden dressed up in his Cub Scout uniform of Pack 147 as he and his pack led the Pledge of Allegiance as part of the tradition. Junior Girl Scout troop 5692 and Daisy Girl Scout Troop 6774 sang carols afterwards.

 “You can see the lights and you don’t have to pay for them, the cookies or the hot chocolate,” said Jayden.

 “I’m honored to do the pledge here at the ceremony.”

after the lighting, there were cookies and hot chocolate.

Furthermore, this year, the recreation committee added a new theme to the event, “Helping Hands.” Ornament kits were handed out and included mittens. Two bins were also set up: one for glove and mittens to be donated to Project Kind, a homeless outreach ministry that provides needed items, information, referrals, fellowship, and prayer to those in need, and another for non-perishable foods to be donated to the Rockaway Borough Food Closet.

 “This is a great opportunity for the town together and celebrate the holiday, while supporting a good cause,” said borough resident David Walter, who has attended the tree lighting for five years.

 “It’s nice to see so many kids come out, representing the different organizations, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, etc.”

 And when the big finale came, the big tree under the library’s gazebo lit up like silver and gold. Kids raced around it, decorating the tree with their own ornaments.

 “This is a great community event tradition,” said O’Connor.

 “It brings everyone together for one night to just enjoy the beginning of the holiday season and celebrate the importance of community.”

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Don't thank black women for Roy Moore's loss. Fight for us every day.

Don't thank black women for Roy Moore's loss. Fight for us every day.

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Black women are often ignored in discussions of politics or our society in general, so it is nice to see credit given where it is due in the case of Doug Jones’ unexpected win in the Alabama Senate race. Jones was carried to victory on the votes of black people — especially black women, who made up 17% of the voting population in Alabama. Around 93% of black men and 98% of black women voted for Doug Jones, showing up to the polls in numbers that almost matched the 2008 election. After the win, many on the left took to social media to thank black women for saving Alabama, and this country, from what would have otherwise been a disastrous loss.

But it is important to realize the obstacles faced by those black women who took the time to show up, too: over 80% of black mothers in America are the sole breadwinners in their household (compared to 40% of white women), yet they make approximately 65 cents on each dollar a white man makes (while white women make 82 cents). Black mothers are dying in childbirth at three times the rate of white mothers. Over 28% of black women live in poverty, compared to only 10.8% of white women. Black women are more likely to die from cancer, to have hypertension, to be sexually assaulted. Black women struggle with all of this, every day, and still — in a state that apparently did everything it could to keep black people from the polls after the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act — black women showed up in Alabama to do what was right.

 Doug Jones supporters cheer as they watch results on Dec. 12, 2017, in Birmingham, Alabama. John Bazemore / AP

Black women showed up, not because they are the saviors of white society, but because they have always shown up, because they have always had to show up. As black women, we have shown up for jobs even with increased rates of racial and sexual harassment and discrimination. We have shown up in the streets to protest for black lives. We have shown up for our children, nieces, nephews and grandchildren after black men are stolen away by the prison industrial complex. We show up even though it is brutalizing us, and even killing us and our children. But it is only appreciated when it happens to help save white people from their own disastrous decisions.

Black women also showed up to defeat Trump: 94% of black women voters chose Hillary, but that wasn’t enough to overcome the 52% of white women and 62% of white men who chose Trump. So they were not appreciated. I remember when the election results came out hearing from multiple white liberals that they blamed the defeat of Clinton not on white voters who literally chose Trump, but on black voters who didn’t come out to pulls in numbers as high as they had for Obama. If only black women had, once again, given absolutely everything they could in spite of it all, then Trump wouldn’t be president today, they swore — even though, of course, white people could have simply voted for Clinton, or convinced their own friends and relatives to vote for Clinton, rather than expecting a minority of voters to save them from the wishes of their own demographic.

If you appreciate black women, don’t just appreciate when we show up for you.

So in light of all of this, what does “appreciation” for black women actually look like? It has to be more than some social media congratulations to the unnamed mass of African American women (most of whom the congratulators might never acknowledge in real life) for keeping an alleged pedophile from taking office in the U.S. Senate despite the best efforts of the majority of Alabama’s white voters. It has to be a broad recognition of the struggles that black women face every day, and a genuine attempt to help lift that burden. We need funding for head start programs for our children, better access to unbiased, affordable healthcare, attention and money for programs like the Southern Rural Black Women’s Initiative and The Empowerment Program that help lift black women out of poverty. We need white people to vote for black women in local and national offices, donate to their campaigns and help get out the vote for them. And we need more people fighting to protect black women and their loved ones from police violence, and to show that black lives do indeed matter to you, by fighting for the equality and justice that has been denied black people in our social, civil and economic systems.

If you appreciate black women, don’t just appreciate when we show up for you in a world that has never shown up for us. Try showing up with us instead. Every day.

Ijeoma Oluo is a Seattle-based writer, speaker and internet yeller. Her book, "So You Want To Talk About Race," will be released in January 2018 with Seal Press.

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Bird, Taurasi headline US women's hoops national team pool

Bird, Taurasi headline US women's hoops national team pool

NEW YORK (AP) -- Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi are back for another run with the U.S. women's basketball team.

The four-time Olympic gold medalists are among the 29 players chosen Thursday for the national team pool. Eleven members of the 2016 Olympic team that won a sixth consecutive gold medal for the Americans are in the group. The only player missing from that team is Tamika Catchings, who retired after the 2016 WNBA season.

''Our strength has always been our best players play over and over. Our veteran players want to play,'' U.S. national team director Carol Callan said. ''They appreciate representing our country and being part of the USA Basketball culture. We've selected athletes that are a mix of young with the older players. We cover each position well.''

The U.S. already has qualified for next year's FIBA World Cup, which will be held in Spain.

There are five college players in the pool: UConn's Napheesa Collier and Katie Lou Samuelson, South Carolina's A'ja Wilson, Ohio State's Kelsey Mitchell and Louisville's Asia Durr. Most, if not all, of them won't participate in a training camp that will be held in South Carolina from Feb. 9-11. U.S. national team coach Dawn Staley said that Wilson, if her class schedule permits, will be around for the training camp.

''If she doesn't have class, I want her to sit front and center to see how the Olympians, two-, three-, four-time Olympians operate and approach things,'' Staley said. ''I want the entire team to witness what it's like to see our country's best athletes come together and practice and gear up to play.''

Staley, who also coaches South Carolina's women's basketball team, will be playing a dual role that weekend, as her Gamecocks are hosting Florida on that Sunday.

All 29 players in the pool have previous international experience with USA Basketball. They've combined to win 100 gold, two silver and four bronze medals.

''The amount of experience that will be here in Columbia, South Carolina, will be great. Working with the best players that our country has to offer and the 29 players that have been invited,'' Staley said. ''We want to share this experience, being at South Carolina, having them come to see our campus, our university, our city, our state, quite sure they'll find it very enjoyable besides the work we need to put in on the floor.''

Callan said the pool is fluid and players can be added. One player who it didn't sound like will be added is Candace Parker, who won Olympic gold medals in 2008 and 2012 but did not make the team in 2016.

''We generally don't talk about players that aren't here because there's a variety of reasons why they aren't,'' Callan said. ''She's one of them, we choose not to try to speak for them. I would simply suggest you ask her. Candace has been an important part of our program over the years and we talked about the decision when she didn't make the Olympic roster. I don't want to speak for her or try to verbalize.''

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US women's hockey team to play NWHL team in Olympic tune-up

US women's hockey team to play NWHL team in Olympic tune-up

The U.S. women's national team will play two exhibitions against some familiar faces from the National Women's Hockey League next month in a final tune-up for the Olympics.

The games are set for Jan. 13 and Jan. 15 at Florida Hospital Center Ice in Wesley Chapel, Florida, where the national team has been training.

Eleven players currently on the U.S. roster competed in the NWHL during the 2016-17 season, USA Hockey said Thursday. The pro league enters its third season with teams in New York, Boston, Buffalo and Stamford, Connecticut.

"(The NWHL) continues to play at an elite level and does a great job of exposing the game in different markets," USA Hockey women's director Reagan Carey said in a phone interview with The Associated Press.

Megan Bozek and Emily Pfalzer helped the Buffalo Beauts win the NWHL championship last March.

"The NWHL is honored to be welcomed by USA Hockey and to participate in this pair of important exhibition games," NWHL Commissioner Dani Rylan said. "Our players, coaches and staff are excited to have this opportunity."

U.S. national team captain Meghan Duggan, Hilary Knight, Gigi Marvin, Brianna Decker, Kacey Bellamy, Alex Carpenter and Amanda Pelkey played for the Boston Pride.

Amanda Kessel (New York Riveters) and Haley Skarupa (Connecticut Whale) also played in the pro league.

Many of the players on both rosters are either ex-teammates or completed against each other in college and the pros.

"The NWHL will do its best to give the players some strong competition so they're ready to bring home the gold in February," Rylan said.

The U.S. team won gold at the first women's hockey event, at the 1998 Nagano Olympics. Since then, the team has earned three silvers and a bronze in losses to Canada.

"We want to make sure the '98 team has some company with the gold medal," Carey said.

The Americans and Canadians will finish their six-game exhibition series with two games this weekend. The U.S. has a 1-3 record so far, but beat its rivals twice at The Four Nations Cup and won the title.

The teams have drawn good crowds in Canada and U.S. stops in Boston and St. Paul, Minnesota. They drew 9,000 flag-waving fans on Dec. 3 in a 2-1 overtime loss at the Xcel Energy Center, home of the Minnesota Wild.

"It's been great to see so many young girls and hockey teams," Carey said. "You can really see the growing landscape for young girls."

The U.S. plays Canada on Friday night in San Jose, California. The Americans wrap up the series on Sunday night at Rogers Place, home of the Edmonton Oilers, in a game televised on NHL Network.

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We Need More Women In STEM: The Girl Scouts Want To Help

We Need More Women In STEM: The Girl Scouts Want To Help

The gender gap in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is a known and stubborn quandary: While women make up roughly half of the college-educated U.S. workforce, they account for less than 30% of STEM jobs.

To fix that, the Girl Scouts hopes to prepare at least 2.5 million girls for potential STEM-related jobs by 2025. That mission includes a new awareness campaign, followed by the expansion of an elementary-school effort called “Think Like a Programmer” to keep girls interested in science and tech as they move on to middle school and high school.

The awareness component has a simple message: Women may be underrepresented in science and tech, but they’ve already made huge impacts. To highlight that, the Girl Scouts created a video in which five of its current members transform into five current and historical STEM icons. They began sharing photos of the transformation in honor of Computer Science Education Week in early December.

The girls dressed up, respectively, as Ada Lovelace, who wrote code for the Analytical Engine, a computer prototype developed in the mid-1800s; Grace Hopper, a modern programming pioneer and Navy admiral; Katherine Johnson, the NASA mathematician who helped save Apollo 13; and Margaret Hamilton from MIT’s software engineering lab, who wrote flight programs for NASA.

To tie it all together, the final girl dressed as Sylvia Acevedo, a former Girl Scout turned engineer turned rocket scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory–who just so happens to be the Girls Scouts’ current CEO. “Casting a spotlight on powerful role models within the STEM arena offers girls a vision of what is possible, and can steer her career trajectory at any age,” Acevedo says in an email to Fast Company. “After all, you have to see it to be it.”

But the organization has realized that it needs new ways to let that inspiration evolve. That’s where the “Think Like a Programmer” expansion comes in. In Girl Scouts terms, the program is considered a “journey”–a longer-term project that builds interest in some discipline (but doesn’t earn the girls badges). For young kids, the goal has been to figure out some ways to use mathematics to both solve a problem and create something remarkable.

Among second and third graders–technically, they’re Brownies, not full-fledged Girls Scouts–one project involved using beads and string to make sun catchers. “It’s a fun and age-appropriate activity where girls learn how this process is like creating an algorithm with patterns, variables, and functions (pieces of code that you want to use over and over again),” notes a spokesperson in an email.

The curriculum for older kids is still being finalized, but would likely be more computer-based, like writing code that automatically solves complex problems (a model that organizations like Girls Who Code have already proved to be wildly successful). For instance, they might participate in “an activity in which girls create an algorithm to solve a simple problem, like choosing a vacation spot,” the spokesperson says.

That’s not exactly a community-changing concept–and a bit disconnected from the group’s supposed emphasis on world-improving icons–but it’s a start. The group will pilot the idea among 60 troops around the country in early 2018, with a wider launch next fall.

While the group hasn’t shared the price tag for this sort of effort, defense and cybersecurity company Raytheon has agreed to pick up the tab. As the group points out in a related promotional video, 1.8 million girls currently participate in the Girl Scouts. The cybersecurity world just so happens to be facing a projected skills gap of 1.8 million qualified workers within the next five years.

And there’s obvious interest among the Girl Scouts’ younger members: About 74% of the group’s younger members report being interested in the STEM field, although that enthusiasm often falls away as they get older.

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