Seeley Lake Girl Scouts need you to volunteer

Samantha Arroyo remembered Girl Scouts fondly when she was growing up in Seeley Lake in the eighties. As she recalled it, the troop meetings happened after school and the troop leaders were also elementary school teachers.

There was a really active parent group at that time, Arroyo said, which also supported Boy Scouts and the Seeley Lake Lions Club.

"But they've grown, their kids have grown, and a lot of them moved," Arroyo said.

Arroyo and other parents are trying to get the next generation of parents involved in their kids' after-school activities. Being part of a small community means you can get really involved, make a lot of different things happen and see the impact of your work, Arroyo said. The downside is it takes a big time commitment from people who are - in the Girl Scout troop volunteers' case - working parents. Right now, the troop needs to find a new troop leader, or likely dissolve at the end of the year.

"If we don't find somebody, as much as we have enjoyed doing this, we're going to have to step off and kind of surrender the group, which is sad because I think there is still a future for a troop here in Seeley," Arroyo said.

Current troop leader Brea Dehm works full-time at Energy Partners, has her own water treatment business, volunteers for the Seeley Lake Fire Department and for an advisory board in Condon. She's a single parent raising two kids. Dehm said she stepped up last year to be the leader because she was worried if she didn't, the troop would disband. And now, she said she doesn't have time to provide the level of attention the troop needs to have the full Girl Scout experience.

"They deserve more," Dehm said.

Seeley's Girl Scout troop is an official troop, registered through the Girl Scouts of Montana and Wyoming. Currently in its third year, it includes about six girls. Each year has been a successful cookie sale year, which allowed the troop to take a trip to the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman - staying at a hotel with a pool - and stop at the Montana Grizzly Encounter, a grizzly bear rescue and education center, in the area. The troop has made crafts for veterans and handed them out during Memorial Day celebrations, cleaned up the elementary school's playground, stayed overnight at the community hall and made pizza and had summer campouts. Arroyo said a lot of the girls might not have had these opportunities without a structured and paid-for event like Girl Scouts.

Ideally, meetings would happen twice a month, one for the girls that lasts between one and two hours and one hour-long meeting for volunteers to plan upcoming events and activities. Arroyo said these have morphed into one meeting due to the limited bandwidth of the current volunteers.

Arroyo said she thinks there is enough interest in the community to drive the Girl Scouts, but not enough people to carry it along.

For someone to properly fill the troop leader role, Arroyo said the person would probably need to be retired, working part-time, or a stay-at-home parent. Anything more and it's more than a person could handle, she said. There are a lot of former troop leaders in the community that could provide advice or assistance, but are not interested in taking on the role again, Arroyo said.

If the right people were interested, Arroyo said it could be really successful. And, it could provide an after-school option for students that will have Fridays off at Seeley Lake Elementary School.

Worst case scenario, Arroyo said the troop will wrap up at the end of the year, barring no interested leaders.

Troop leaders and assistants don't need to be parents of Girl Scouts to volunteer, and can be men or women. If interested in getting involved, contact Arroyo at 406-677-7975.