Girl Scout Loves the State Park Weekend 2024 - Abilene, Texas Style
Maile N. is a Media Corps Girl Scout Cadette from Abilene. She wrote about her Girl Scouts Love State Parks experience. Abilene Girl Scouts hosted troops from the surrounding area, Lubbock, and Amarillo for a big campout at Abilene State Park.
Every year, Girl Scouts across the U.S. celebrate Girl Scouts Loves
the State Parks. This year, Girl Scouts celebrated their love for the
State parks the weekend of September 13-15, 2024. Every year and every
area looks different depending on their area. However, the Abilene,
Texas, area is privileged to have our very own Texas State Park less
than thirty minutes away. Abilene Girl Scouts hosted troops from
Abilene, Lubbock, and Amarillo this year. Girl Scouts had the entire
Pecan Grove area to camp and explore along with the rest of the
Abilene State Park and Lake Abilene very nearby.
On Friday, September 13, 2024, troops came out and set up camp. Miss Emily Marquez from the Abilene Girl Scout Office hosted our hot dog dinner. The Bluebonnet Country Service Unit 702 hosted a Glow Party complete with lots of Glow in the Dark items like face paints, glow sticks, light up glasses, light up rings, light up crafts, glow in the dark tattoos, glow in the dark tic-tac-toe, and I provided the dance party music playlist. We had so much fun dancing especially in the dark with the glow. We also danced to several line dance songs which was a blast - even some parents joined in.
On Saturday, September 14, 2024, we had a full day! We began at Lake Abilene with Ranger Candyce from the Abilene State Park. She was accompanied by several other rangers and educators and Master Naturalists to teach us more about the outdoors and what our area has to offer. We learned casting, catch and release, fishing, knot tying, and geocaching. Then, we took a break indoors to learn about Wildlife 101 from Ranger Candyce and Ranger John. They had furs and skeletons from many animals like deer, coyote, beaver, fox, mountain lion, bobcat, racoons, and skunk. We learned all about their adaptations, and got to feel their pelts.
Then, it was troop time. We took turtle time, snack time, and then started decorating our campsite for our theme “Girl Scout Green.” My troop, Troop 7302, won first place! We (Juniors & Cadettes) planned it all at a meeting and then we set our campsite up with green lights, green and white pennants, green tablecloths, a table complete with green leis (our troop crest), green bubbles, and friendship bracelet kits. We completed the evening with S’mores & Star Gazing.
On the morning of Sunday, September 15, 2024, troops went back over to Lake Abilene for our service project. We took trash bags and gathered anything that was not natural to the area.
It was great knowing how many girls had such a fun time wanting to come back for more next year! We love our State Park here in Abilene! We want to protect it for as long as possible, and to keep it as healthy as possible. In the words of Helen Keller, “The best and most beautiful things cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.” Friendship and love for nature is something we all feel in our hearts.
Special thanks to Abilene State Park & Emily Marquez with Girl Scouts of Texas Oklahoma Plains (Abilene) for making it such a wonderful weekend. Cannot wait until next year!
September 17, 2024
