Girl Scouts learning from each other: Question and Answer session with an Alum.

 

Back when I was a Girl Scout, we sold cookies door to door, went square dancing, and camping, but that was back in the Sixties and I was a Junior Girl Scout. My favorite memory was learning square dancing. It was a fun way to start the weekend. With all they work they do in the community, Mary Small Vertanen's Cadette troop makes me look lazy. 

In addition to being a foster parent for 15 years, she has been involved with the Girl Scouts for over 35 years. I think Mary said it best, "I started when my oldest was 6 years old. I am currently the co leader of four troops. It keeps me busy and it keeps me young. Thought I would let you know a little about our Cadette troop and what they are doing this year. We have two girls working on their Silver Award (highest award at the Cadette level). They visit an assisted living facility once a month and do projects with the residents. The one girl is also making handcrafted cards and mailing them to the residents for their birthdays. We have two girls working on four native perennial pollinator gardens at the intersection of US 41-M28 and Cherry Creek Rd in Harvey. They are working with the Marquette County Conservation District to plant and maintain the gardens. They are also creating a resource for the township office on the gardens and the plants they selected for the gardens. We have two girls working at a nursing home in Munising doing weekly activities with the residents and having a blast. We also have three girls making welcome baskets for the assisted living facility. They learned to sew at camp in January and made bags for the walkers. They will also be making no tie blankets and other items to put in the baskets. These are all Silver Award projects. We will be starting a fifth project in the spring working with the Salvation Army and their food pantry". 

On Friday night, Mary's Cadette Troop did something different. They had a question and answer session with a Girl Scout Alumna from Middle Tennessee who has completed a teaching internship and is a Child Development major at Tennessee State University. How did this bridge between North and South happen?

Kina Morton is a friend of mine from work. At that time, her daughter Tiara was a Junior Girl Scout. I used to buy Girl Scout cookies from her. Since Mary is a retired preschool teacher and active in Girl Scouts and Tiara is now majoring in Child Development and a Girl Scout alum, I figured both Tiara and the troop could learn something from each other. 

Questions for Tiara: 

1. Why did you stay involved in Girl Scouts? 

 I stayed involved with Girl Scouts, because it showed me such great opportunities. The best opportunity that I took from being in Girl Scouts was developing leadership skills. As I continued my journey as a Girl Scout I was to grow and learn more about being a leader. 

2. Did you earn any of the high awards? 

Yes, I did earn the highest award a Girl Scout can achieve, The Gold Award. It was a tough adventure to achieve, but was worth so much at the end. 

 Note to reader: The Gold Award is the highest award a Girl Scout Senior or Ambassador can earn. It requires a project with at least 80 hours of service, is sustainable and educational. The girl needs to have a team to help her and they need to be people outside of her family and troop. 

3. What was your Gold Award project and what did you do for it? 

My Gold Award Project title was, Knowledge is Reading and Comprehension. My project addressed the reading behavior of young children, created an environment to make reading fun and taught comprehension skills. I created a informational booklet identifying the books received, pictures of my activities, lesson plans, a step guide for those who would like to do a similar project, budget plan, etc. I did this type project specifically because upon research identified from TN’s reading scores via tn.gov- that reading comprehension in our state is poor. 

4. Why do you think the girls should earn the Gold Award?

 I believe girls should earn their Gold Award because it is such a prestigious award. Also, girls are able to address the issues that are important to them. Once the Award is received, the girl will have the ability to identify herself as an inspiring leader in her community that is working on fixing some of the most challenging issues the world is facing. Yes, I do understand what you are saying when you state that the Gold Award was a difficult process. Believe me, there were times when I felt that I was not getting any progress. There were even times when my troop leader had to just sit and have a conversation to motivate myself. So to get through the process I depended heavily on my troop leader, my Girl Scout sisters, and especially my project advisor. One thing that my troop leader made sure of was that through the process of picking our project topic, that we were sure that we were able to find an advisor that connected to our topic and was reliable, trustworthy, and fully committed advisor.

5. What is your favorite memory of being a Girl Scout?

My favorite memory of being a Girl Scout was the community involvement. I was able to explore my community, while being a helping hand.

It's been a pleasure. Thank you Tiara and Mary!

Starting my new blog with an interview about foster parenting!

I am starting off my blog with an interview of my friend and high school classmate, Mary Small Vertanen. She and her husband Dennis fostered over 50 foster children for 15 years.  A retired preschool teacher, Mary is now a Girl Scout troop leader who lives in Upper Michigan.

Coming in the next few months will be a blog posting about a question and answer session via Facetime between Mary’s troop and Girl Scout alumna Tiara Morton who is a Child Development major at Tennessee State University.

When asked about foster parenting, Mary said, “It truly was a labor of love and a family affair. At times it was very hard on our girls. They would fall in love with a child and then that child would be sent home. My youngest was a very outspoken little girl and one time she actually wrote a letter to the director of social services voicing her concerns for her ‘sister and brother’.”

Since I had never fostered any children, I had a few questions for Mary.

1.       What prompted you and your husband to be foster parents?

We were awaiting the adoption of our daughter from Korea. Our second daughter had passed away at 6 months and Dennis and I had said we would have two biological children and then adopt. We wanted our oldest daughter to have experiences with other children prior to getting her sister from Korea. My parents had been unofficial foster parents.

2.       How old, what gender, was your first foster child?

Our first foster child was a little girl named Dawn. She was three years old. We had only been licensed for about 2 hours when we got the call for Dawn.

3.       What things did you do to help your children adapt to the new child?  

        In the beginning of our Foster parent journey Courtney was only three years old. We talked to her about having another child live with us, had her help get the bedroom ready. When we decided to become foster parents in Vermont Courtney was 9 years old and Kimberley was 5 years old. We talked to them about the process, introduced them to the staff at social services and they helped set up the bedroom for the future foster children.

4.       What are the greatest rewards of foster parenting?   

       It isn’t easy at times bringing another child into your home especially a child who had been neglected or abused. Our girls learned to love unconditionally. They learned about acceptance. They learned so much about helping others overcome their fears. I think us being a foster family helped our girls grow into strong, independent and caring adults.

               For me……I loved offering a safe haven for the children.

5.       How did you deal behavioral challenges in a child?  

       Sometimes we had to be creative when dealing with children with behavior issues. We used various resources in our community to help us deal with the children including mental health services. We took a lot of parenting classes and trainings.

6.       Did you belong to support groups with other foster parents?

Dennis and I were very active in the foster parent association in Vermont and attended the state foster parent conferences every year.

7.       Any advice for people considering becoming foster parents?

             
 It will be one of the most difficult things you will ever do…….to love a child for a day, a week, a month or even a year and then say good bye. It can be heartbreaking for you and for your children. It can be extremely difficult to bring a child into your home who might have anger issues, severe emotional issues, learning disabilities or a child who has been the victim of child abuse. You will have countless sleepless nights, lots of tears, tantrums, rejection. You just need to open your heart and love the child.

Make sure you have a strong support system to help you during the difficult times. Ask for help.

Learn to say no when you are feeling burned out.

Don’t be afraid to tell the caseworker that the placement isn’t working. You need to keep yourself and your family “healthy” to be able to continue providing a home for the foster children.

Thank you, Mary! You are an inspiration!