Mother and daughter receive highest honors at Girl Scout luncheon

Intermountain Catholic

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At the April 16 Girl Scouts of Utah Recognition of Excellence luncheon, Elizabeth Smith (at lectern) received the Freddie Award, which is given to an adult volunteer who has delivered outstanding service to Girl Scouts and also has made a significant contribution to other organizations. Smith's daughter Kathryn Smith, (right) received the Gold Award, the highest achievement in Girl Scouting.

SALT LAKE CITY — Ten years ago, Elizabeth Smith was determined to give her third-grade daughter, Kathryn, the same kind of fun memories of Girl Scouts that she had built, so the two went to the recruitment meeting. That’s when the first memory was made.

"Ever precocious, Kate stood up before they even finished introducing scouting, and said, ‘If we can start a troop my mom will be the leader,’" said Elizabeth Smith, who did indeed become the leader of Troop 272.

Those memories continued over 10 years, as Kathryn moved from Brownies to Girl Scouts and Elizabeth took on not only leadership of the troop but also duties at the Service Unit level. Now, as Elizabeth has stepped down as leader and Kathryn prepares to enter college, both mother and daughter have been honored with high awards.

On April 16, the Girl Scouts of Utah presented Elizabeth with the Freddie Award, which "recognizes an adult volunteer who has delivered outstanding service to Girl Scouts by working with girls and adults in the areas of program and training, and has made a significant contribution to other church, school, civic or cultural organizations," according to the program at the awards luncheon.

At the same banquet, Kathryn was given the Gold Award, the highest award in Girl Scouts.

Elizabeth became her daughter’s troop leader because she knew there wouldn’t be a troop otherwise, she said. "I also was thinking it would be a lot of fun because I would get a lot of chances to do the activities and to go to camp and to learn how to row and all of the stuff that they teach you. Some of it was for my own benefit."

The Scenic View Service Unit serves all Girl Scout troops in the Sandy/Fort Union area; it meets at Saint Thomas More Catholic Church in Sandy, where the Smiths are parishioners.

"Father Dave and Nora are incredible about letting us use the building," said Elizabeth about the pastor, Fr. Dave van Massenhove, and the pastoral assistant, Nora Kennedy.

For Elizabeth, the best memories over the years have been the overnight camps, which the girls themselves planned as they got older. Elizabeth said she enjoyed "hanging out with the girls, and watching the girls in the troop succeed and plan and make it happen."

Kathryn, too, enjoyed the camps. A senior at the Salt Lake School for the Performing Arts and Highland High School, she also remembers 11 girls of her troop taking 200 pounds of school supplies to an orphanage in Mexico to earn the Silver Award, which represents "a girl’s accomplishments in Girl Scouting and her community as she grows and works to improve her life and the lives of others," according to www.girlscouts.org.

While working on badges is a large part of being a Girl Scout, Kathryn has other memories as well. "I made a lot of friends. In third grade I was in a new school, so I invited all of the people I kind of knew to be in our troop and I’m still good friends with two of them."

As she grew up, she found that with Girl Scouts, "I went from being the person who was doing the activities to being the person who planned the activities. I’ve actually felt more involved the older I get because the older you get the fewer girls there are your age, but you also get to interact with the adults more and get to form closer bonds with the people who are involved."

While she plans to get a lifetime membership to Girl Scouts, she thinks her involvement will taper off while she attends the University of Utah, where she plans to major in musical theater or English and obtain a teaching degree. However, envisions scouting in her future. "If I have a daughter I will be her leader," Kathryn said. "I don’t know if I’ll be able to do as much as Mom has been able to, but I definitely want to try to be a leader if I can."

Meanwhile, Elizabeth intends to get her sons involved with Boy Scouts, although she is helping with the Girl Scouts 100-year celebration next year, and also will remain as Scenic View Service Unit’s delegate.

"I just can’t seem to cut the ties; there are too many great women," she said.