Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, December 27, 1994 TAG: 9412270131
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SARAH HUNTLEY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
"What are we doing today?" she asked troop leader Carolyn Word, who told her they planned to make friendship bracelets.
Shant stood at the door for a moment. "I'll be back," she said.
About 15 minutes later, she came through the door again. This time, there were three other girls behind her. Word greeted them all with a smile.
"They keep coming back," she said. "That's our greatest success."
Week after week, girls from low-income housing developments are sharing in a common childhood experience - Scouting.
The S.E.L.F. program, which stands for Scouting Early Leads to the Future, came to Roanoke from Lynchburg four years ago, but has blossomed here in the past year. Ninety-two girls in four city housing developments and the Villa Heights area now participate in meetings, service projects, field trips, cookie sales and friendship.
Normalcy is at a premium for these girls, many of whom live in topsy-turvy worlds with little direction, minimal parental involvement and overwhelming socioeconomic stress. But when they are at the S.E.L.F. center, they are Daisies, Brownies, Juniors, Cadets or Seniors - Girl Scouts, pure and simple.
"I don't want my girls to think they are any different from any other Scout," said Word, who became full-time program director a year and a half ago. "That's my goal - to make them realize that."
Word and her colleague, Tracy Hines, work 35 hours a week to provide interesting activities and alternatives for the girls.
Their Hurt Park office, provided by the Roanoke Redevelopment and Housing Authority, is open all day. Even when there are no scheduled activities, girls flock there after school for help with their homework and for companionship.
The center is at its busiest, though, on Thursday afternoons, when the Hurt Park troops meet. With girls spanning the ages coming and going, it is a hectic place, but somehow a feeling of closeness - and order - makes its way through the buzz.
"I was told by someone that I've got to deal with these girls on a different level. I thought about that and decided if we are going to talk about levels, I was going to treat them on a very high one," Word said. ``... When they are here for a meeting, they know they are here for a meeting. That requires order.''
All of the center's activities are centered on fun, but important lessons about health, leadership and self-esteem seep through. On this particular Thursday, the younger Scouts were visited by a nurse and took part in a program about the human heart and the circulatory system.
Out came simple anatomical charts, stethoscopes and a healthy dose of curiosity.
Straining to hear her heartbeat, Whitney Lopez, 5, adjusted the stethoscope in her ears, wrinkled up her face and listened.
"I don't hear nothing," she said, going cross-eyed as she stared down at her chest. "There's just a lot of noise."
Shane Alexander, 8, a Junior Girl Scout, said she comes most weeks.
"Sometimes I can't, though, because my mama has to work. Sometimes I have to go to my grandmother's house instead," she explained. "But I like to come. It's fun."
It has to be, or the girls will lose enthusiasm, said Julie Becker, marketing director for the Virginia Skyline Girl Scout Council.
"With our traditional troops there is often someone, an adult, who makes the girls go. They say, `You made this commitment, now follow up on it.' But the girls here don't have to come. Nobody is out there pushing them to have this experience," she said.
In addition to in-house activities, the girls go to statewide Scouting events and on troop field trips. The older girls participated in this year's Cadet-Senior Round-up in Harrisonburg, where they camped out for the first time and took part in a wide variety of workshops.
"The dance workshops were their favorite at first, until they realized it wasn't the kind of dancing they are accustomed to," Word said, laughing. "Then they got into the crafts. Meeting and spending time with the other Scouts was a great experience."
Last year, Word and other adult chaperones took 35 girls to Washington, D.C., for the annual Cherry Blossom Festival. For many, staying in a hotel was a new experience.
"The phone just amazed them, that they could call all these different places," Word said. "And the pool and sauna, things like that. They just lost their minds."
The S.E.L.F. program has a budget from the Virginia Skyline Girl Scout Council, so it is able to waive membership fees and provide the girls with uniforms and supplies. A little more than half of their field-trip funding comes from the council as well, but the girls raise the rest.
"We want the girls to have a hand in raising the money so they can take responsibility for the successes they have," Becker said.
Like the Hurt Park center itself, vans for the outings are provided by the Housing and Redevelopment Authority.
"I come from a Girl Scout background and know the value of Scouting in girls' lives in terms of leadership training and growth," said Anita Lee, director of resident development with the housing authority.
"Generally the girls who are raised in public housing don't have the resources to attend troop meetings that are held in other places. We wanted to provide them with that opportunity right in their own communities."
Girl Scouts provides role models and keeps the girls out of trouble, Lee said.
"One of our goals is to provide activities that are organized and wholesome for kids, to offer an alternative to the things they see on the street," she said. "And let me tell you, you can't find a better role model than Carolyn Word."
Word, 43, is a native Roanoker who worked as a caseworker manager for Rep. Jim Olin for five years before accepting her job with the Girl Scout S.E.L.F. center.
"I know in my heart that these girls are my future," she said. "I want to make sure they have the same opportunities as others to do whatever they want with their lives. Life doesn't have to stop here."
The S.E.L.F. center offers programs at Hurt Park, Indian Village, Bluestone, Landsdowne and the Villa Heights area. For more information, call 345-2072.
by CNB