By Katie Callahan

Generally, Girl Scouts are known for asking the ever-important question of how many Thin Mints local passerby would like to buy outside grocery stores.

But one Cadette Girl Scout troop of 12-and-13-year olds is attempting to change the community in a different way, using their cookie sales and fundraising for another goal.

Local troop 3066 is a year ahead on one of their latest tasks to receive a silver award, creating grief boxes for those who have lost pets and a GaGa (an enclosed dodgeball game) court for Benchley Weinberger Elementary School.

The first group, the ‘feel better’ boxes group or grief box group, includes Calley Stein, Kaylie Walsingham, Shelby Jarchow and Lily Boyd. The second group, the GaGa court group, included Gianna Bertsche, Jasmine Lawson, Ashlee Schindler and Rachel Timmons. These projects, completed in May, were planned months in advance.

The groups received funding from Dr. Christine Wilson, a local veterinarian at Steele Canyon Vet Clinic who donated money to help with the cost of the ‘feel better’ boxes. So far, the troop’s completed 183 boxes, with plans to make more.

They distributed boxes to Rancho San Carlos Pet Clinic, The Pet Emergency Center in La Mesa, High Valley Veterinarian Hospital in Ramona and Steele Canyon Vet Clinic. The boxes were created to give to people who lost pets to store their pet memorabilia, whether a collar or some of its hair.

They bought small, wooden boxes, painted them and decorated them with ribbons, jewels, stamps, sayings and decorations. A cork is on the inside cover and a note comes with each, wrapped in clear cellophane and ribbon, some with small crosses. Each is unique.

“I’ve gotten personal emails from people who have gotten the boxes from the veterinary clinics that we’ve given them to, just saying how much it meant to them in this really dark moment that there was this little shimmer of some happiness,” Candy Stein, co-leader of the troop, said.

The troop had requests from friends for boxes but they also had a troop member use the box herself.

“I recently lost a pet and one of the vets we gave the boxes to was one of our friends and she brought one of the boxes to my house. So I used one of the boxes that we made for my pet,” Boyd said.

The second Girl Scout group’s project was more fitness-minded — building a court for a sport called GaGa ball and teaching how to play it the students at Benchley Weinberger Elementary School.

Parent and local contractor, Kenny Schindler of Precision Concrete Designs, Inc. donated materials – concrete and wood primarily – and labor to build the GaGa court. The girls fundraised for their own supplies as well, things like paint, sandpaper, brushes, screws and nails.

“I have a long history with pretty much all of these girls from coaching them in softball or soccer since kindergarten,” Schindler said. “So I’ve been involved; they’re all my daughters in a way. So it was my privilege and pleasure to be a part of helping them.”

The idea to build a GaGa court came from some of the girls’ experience learning about them at YMCA Surfing Camp.

“We were brainstorming and we knew that we wanted to help kids get fit in a fun way so we kind of based our idea around that,” Gianna Bertsche said.

The girls learned a lot in helping build the Gaga court. They used the saw to cut the wood; measured out the demensions for the size of the court; painted the panels and wood caps on top; and designed the outside of the court to reflect the school motto (the Benchley school motto is School with Heart) by placing their own and other student handprints in paint in the shape of large hearts on the outside panels of the court.  They also printed up the rules of the game which we had made into an aluminum sign and posted on the outside of the court.  The project was completed over two weekends with the help of other troop members, parent volunteers and Prescision Concrete Designs, Inc.

Corinne Bertsche and Candy Stein, as co-leaders of the troop, have led the troop since the girls were in kindergarten.

“They’ve become very aware of the community and aware of others and I think as a whole that’s made them better people,” Candy Stein said. “They strive and have goals that make us very proud.”

This troop’s next task is the gold award, an individual project they’ll complete after they enter ninth grade.

“Candy and I have helped them along all these years and given them ideas and now they’re becoming leaders and doing this themselves and presenting it to the community themselves, so we’re very impressed and proud of these girls, how they’ve developed over the years,” Corinne Bertsche said.

Ashlee Schindler said the troop feels accomplished and was surprised they could complete something like a GaGa court at such a young age and see it being used. The entire troop helped to complete both projects; they hope to pass them and their upkeep on to other Girl Scout troops.

“Not only is Girl Scouts getting a way to hang out with your friends, but also it’s making a difference and if we do decide to do the gold award, I think that we’ll not only have fun but we’ll also make a difference,” Lawson said.

—Katie Callahan is a San Diego-based freelance journalist who spends her free time on craft beer, hiking, books and local eats. Reach her at [email protected] or check out her latest at katieannecallahan.weebly.com.