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Dr. Laura Sass: GSCCC Board Member At Large
For many of our passionate and dedicated volunteers, Girl Scouts is part of their family’s identity. Dr. Laura Sass, MD, a GSCCC Board Member At Large, is a proud third generation Girl Scout who is married to a Lifetime Girl Scout member (husband Barry) and is the parent of two Lifetime Girl Scouts, Megan and Sarah!
“I was a Girl Scout starting in the 1970’s in Northern Virginia and then upstate New York,” Laura said. “My mother was my Brownie troop leader in Virginia. I was in until Cadettes. Both my grandmother and mother were Girl Scouts, as well.”
This tradition paved the way for Laura to get involved in Girl Scouts with her own daughters, too. “I became a Girl Scout volunteer in 2004 when Megan was in kindergarten. I was the assistant troop leader for her Daisy troop, and then became the leader for her troop the next year, then Sarah’s leader as well once she started kindergarten until 2022 when she graduated.”
Laura was bitten by the volunteering bug, and soon accepted other roles within her Service Unit (SU) and the Council. “I volunteered for our SU, and served in many roles, including registrar (when it was still paper!) and cookie chair. I was the SU manager as well, and went through at least three realignments during this time. I was a National Delegate to the 2008 convention in Indianapolis, and a chaperone for the 2014 Girl Scout Leadership Institute in Salt Lake City. I served as the SU delegate as well, and was a volunteer member on the board of directors with Sarah.” Her experience included some outdoor time, as well. “Back when Girl Scout summer camp was volunteer-run, I spent several weeks at Camp Apasus.”
Indeed, camping is one of Laura’s fondest memories of her time as a girl in Girl Scouts. “We would go camping every summer on the Eastern Shore, and earn the boating and water based badges. There was an older man and his family who we would see each summer who was a Boy Scout leader, and he would help us with the badges. I still have my Junior badge book where he would sign off the skills we did for each badge.” After moving to New York, she had some “cooler” adventures: “We earned our year-round camping patch when I was in middle school, camping in the snow in tents in New York. Only once did we get to stay in a lodge that year, the rest were in tents!”
When talking about her time volunteering with her daughter’s troops, Laura gets emotional. “Watching my troop grow up into amazing young women was amazing, and I am so proud of them,” she shared. “One of my best memories is going to Europe in 2015, and visiting Our Chalet. My girls sang the ‘Our Chalet Song’ to me on that mountain top, and I cried.”
In her professional life, Dr. Sass is a pediatric infectious disease physician and partner in Children’s Specialty Group, where she sees patients at Children's Hospital of The King’s Daughters. She is there for families when their children are sick. This, too, is tied to her experiences in Girl Scouts.
“One of my proudest moments was being allowed to present a troop member her Silver Award before she lost her battle with depression. This was very meaningful to her mother, and we were able to pin her while in the hospital,” Laura said. “The support from the council to the family, myself and my troop during that difficult time was amazing, and made me proud to be a Girl Scout. It truly reflected the Girl Scout Law: to be a sister to every Girl Scout.”
