Sisters Girl Scouts host Mother-Daughter Tea

Daughters and their mothers from all around Central Oregon came to Sisters to sip tea and munch cookies earlier this month. More importantly, they took a break from normal doings to celebrate that special relationship that only a girl and her mother can experience. Well over 100 attended the fifth annual Girl Scouts Mother-Daughter Tea.

Each year Sisters Girl Scouts invite other scouts and their moms from Redmond, Madras, Culver, Warm Springs and other Central Oregon small towns to the event at Sisters Community Church. Because of space limitations, Bend scouts are not invited.

According to troop leader Megan Newton from Redmond, the event offers girl scouts from other areas the opportunity to explore a broader scope of activities than they experience in their home troops.

"We just started in January, and we have a real small troop (of five- and six-year-old Daisy scouts), and we're just trying to do as much with them activity-wise as we can. The girls are very excited to be here," Newton said. "It's all about building sistership."

"I see it more as building girl strength, woman strength, girl power," said Becca Scott, who is also working with the Redmond Daisy troop. "It's uniting together in sisterhood."

In keeping with this year's theme Tea and Talent, a nine-act variety show highlighted the event. The show was produced and directed by Sisters High School Girl Scouts Heidi Brush, Simone Garrison and Sara Sanchez.

"They previewed the acts to make sure they were of good quality and gave the little girls pointers," said Service Unit Manager for the Sisters Area Girl Scouts Evelyn Brush. "The girls had to audition because we didn't want people coming and saying: 'Oh, we'll be in the talent show today,'" said Heidi.

After the audition, the high school girls organized the program and made all necessary arrangements for the show.

"They are doing the sound system, and they decorated the stage. They created the whole environment," said Brush.

This year for the first time ever, Sisters scouts used the event as a recruitment tool.

"We invited the fourth grade girls from Sisters," Brush said. About six attended. "They joined specifically to come to this event. We're letting them have a taste of scouting to see if they want to continue or not."

All girls between the ages of five and 18 are eligible to participate in Girl Scouts, and they may join at any time. General information about the Girl Scouts of the USA is available at http://www.girlscouts.org. For more information contact Brush at 549-2066.