All-girl Scout troop receives $1,000 donation from Granbury VFW

Scouts BSA Troop 7211 now has extra funds to fix its gear trailer, thanks to a generous donation of $1,000 from the Riley Stephens Memorial Post 7835 Auxiliary (Veterans of Foreign Wars) on Feb. 6.

“The trailer that was donated to us, it was in really rough shape,” said Scoutmaster Britiney Zamora. “But we’ve basically gutted the whole thing, put new flooring in, and now we need to sand it, paint it, and put a new hitch on. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to the trailer, so that’s what most of the donation will go towards, but then some of it will also go toward a first-aid kit for our girls when they go on camp outs and high-adventure (activities).”

Formed this year, Scouts BSA troop 7211 is a rather untraditional Boy Scouts of America troop, with a total of eight members — all girls.

In 2019, BSA began accepting girls into all of its ranks for the first time in its 109-year history. The name was later changed to the gender-neutral title of Scouts BSA.

"The girls do the exact same stuff that the boys do, which is fun because not all girls like to bake and do (activities) like that, but they're learning all the life skills that they'll need to know,” Zamora said. “When we go on campouts, the girls basically plan the whole thing themselves. They just have to have a little of adult assistance on reserving the camps, and then basically we're there for safety to make sure if they need help, they have some assistance, but they basically get to plan all these fun camp outs and enjoy doing them all on their own. It gives them a little bit of independence and they really like it.”

Troop 7211 is open to all girls from sixth grade to 18 years old who reside in Hood County and the surrounding areas.

"Two of the girls were from Weatherford and we actually have one from Acton also, so we take girls from all over this area,” Zamora said. “They don't have to necessarily live here in Granbury to attend our troops.”

She said it was “amazing” for the VFW to give a donation to their troop.

"It melts my heart because the girls love to do stuff like this and it's really hard for us to be able to put everything in our vans, so being able to fund the trailer was a great help for us,” Zamora said. “We're very grateful for them for being able to donate that for us."

Scouts BSA Troop 7211 meets at 6 p.m. on Sundays at the Granbury First United Methodist Church.

“The only Sundays we don't meet are the Sundays that we have camp outs, but that's once a month, and the day varies,” Zamora said. “We let (the girls) come to a couple of meetings to see if they really like it or don't like it and then if they decide that they do, then they just register online."

She also added that the troop will be heading to New Mexico in July for a “fun camp out.”

To register for Troop 7211, visit scouting.org online and search for the troop by using the “76048” zip code.