Girl Scouts of Colorado is proud to announce the availability of our first Council’s Own badge. Each Girl Scout Council is permitted to develop up to six Council’s Own badges, which are earned awards completely unique to the council.
Our first badge, “Urban Orienteering in the Capital,” was developed by Cadette Girl Scout Troop 63573 from Denver. Initially, the troop developed this project to help all girls learn to navigate an urban environment, as their Silver Award project. At the end of the project, the troop was so enthusiastic about the opportunities that this project offered, that it decided to take it a step further and worked to develop a formal Girl Scout badge.
The 11 girls who worked on this project have big dreams for their badge. According to their leader, Kristin Coulter:
We chose the topic of Urban Orienteering because we live in the city and because we love to travel. We are 7th and 8th graders and we wanted to feel confident navigating a city safely while using different methods of transportation and we thought other girls would as well. Our badge is ideal for any Cadette that wants to know her own city, or is traveling or moving to a city.
We know that Girl Scouts emphasizes outdoor activities. Our troop loves getting outdoors and enjoying nature. We competed in Reach for the Peak this year and will do so again. We have skied, hiked, and traveled to Costa Rica together but nothing has prepared us to manage the city.
The Cadette Urban Orienteering in the Capital badge is now available of purchase in the shop. Badge activity instructions can be downloaded at no charge here: http://www.girlscoutsofcolorado.org/content/dam/girlscoutsofcolorado/documents/Urban%20Orienteering%20in%20the%20Capitol.pdf
Girl Scouts of Colorado would like to extend our sincere gratitude and appreciation for the tremendous work accomplished by Troop 63573. We are honored that our first Council’s Own badge was developed by girls, for girls, and look forward to working with other girls, troops and volunteers on similar projects in the future.