Volunteer Spotlight: Jennifer Byrd
For many girls, becoming a Girl Scout is a family tradition. Jennifer Byrd from Ahoskie, North Carolina, is a lifetime Girl Scout, spent twelve years as a girl in the program and has 24 years of experience as an adult member. She is eager to keep her family's tradition alive and to follow in her mother’s, Kay Byrd, footsteps. Like Kay, she wants to ensure her daughter receives the Girl Scout experience and enjoy years of sharing Girl Scouting with her. As a girl, Jennifer and her nine sister Girl Scouts from Troop 702 earned their Girl Scout Gold Awards. Jennifer is now a leader for Brownie Troop 2702 and loves spending time in the troop with her daughter—just like she did with her mom.
“Camp Darden was always a favorite when I was a girl and continues to be now,” she said. “Through the years my troop (Troop 702) went on many adventures and formed lasting friendship bonds that we still have today. We went on trips to Bahamas, Washington DC where we toured the White House, New York and Universal Studios, just to name a few. I look forward to taking similar adventures with Troop 2702 in the future! We are also looking forward to doing community service, something we feel is important, especially since we live in a small town and are very connected.”
Jennifer says it has been challenging to give her troop the same Girl Scout experience she had as a girl. “My co leader, Ashley Jenkins, and I worked together when the pandemic started to adapt the program to the situation. We created badge bags with activities that were packed individually to allow us to work with the girls virtually. We porch delivered these bags to each girl. They had all of the materials to use as we talked about it over our Zoom meetings. Now we are blessed with a meeting space that we are able to spread out and meet safely together and we’re taking trips to camp and events such as Girl Fest to keep it exciting!”
