Local Girl Scout goes on a dog sledding adventure

Winter break – a two week vacation from homework, teachers, and tardy cards. A time when high school students all over the nation bask in the glow of video games, i-pods, television sets. For most teenagers sleeping till noon is the best and only way to spend winter break, but for Sara Mabry sleeping in was not an option.

Mabry, a Raytown High School junior, spent her winter break on a destination.

Mabry is a Girl Scout.

Today, Girl Scouting is about more than crafts, camp outs, and cookie sales. Through Girl Scouts, girls all over the country are learning respect for others, finding their place in the world, and discovering how they can positively impact their communities.

Mabry is no different.

December 28, 2006, Mabry packed up her snow gear and set off to Minnesota on an adventure.

The teen Girl Scouts program, Studio 2B, encourages girls to take a destination trip – trekking through a Costa Rican rainforest, on a simulated mission to the moon at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Ala. or canoeing through the Everglades. They can make a movie in San Diego, be a counselor at a camp for girls with physical disabilities here in Kansas City, or become a musher on a dog sledding adventure in Minnesota.

According to the Girl Scouts USA Web site, “all destination events provide an opportunity for individual members to broaden their perspectives.”

Mabry, after reading through her list of options, settled decisively on – dog sledding in Ely, Minn.

“I saw dog sledding and I thought, how many people can say they went dog sledding, and that is pretty much how I fell in love with dog sledding,” Mabry said.

Though, as a child, Mabry had seen the movie, “Balto” (about a dog who leads a dog sled on a 600-mile trip through Alaska to help save children from diphtheria), and was admittedly hooked on dog sledding ever since, Mabry discovered that actually doing dog sledding herself was “very different.”

Fighting the cold was a challenge Mabry said, adding that “whenever we complained that we were cold our instructors would make us run to keep warm.”

Mabry had to learn how to guide the dogs who were pulling 600 pounds of equipment on their sled across the frozen lake.

“Basically, we moved all day and then we had a couple hours of sunlight left, so we would set up camp, cook dinner, and stuff like that. Then we just laid a tarp down in the snow, put our sleeping back down over that, and then, usually, put a tarp over us and then went to bed,” Mabry said. “It was kind of cold.”

“We each had our own dog that we were responsible for,” Mabry said. “My dog was Chester, and he had three brothers who were on our team.”

The destination event was about more than just learning how to get a pack of dogs to pull a sled.

For Mabry it was an opportunity to build life skills that will benefit her for long after her eight day adventure.

“I know it’s corny, but it made me stronger. In obviously a physical way because that was like 600 pounds of stuff that you had to push when it got knocked over. But I even built my personal skills by getting to know strangers. I learned just general life skills, because I had to fend for myself because there wasn’t mom and dad to go get me things. It was a lesson in independence,” Mabry said.

According to Gina Garvin, public relations and marketing director for the Girls Scouts of North East Kansas and North West Missouri, destinations are a great opportunity for teen girls. “Different councils across the country, and even international, will sponsor these destinations that [the girls] can go on. Some of them are about community service, some of them are about skills, and some are an opportunity to try something new. All of them are an opportunity for Girls Scouts from all over to get to know each other and build bonds.”

For Mabry, this was a big part of her destination. “I still have phone numbers and emails. I didn’t know any of those girls. They were all kind of stand-offish at the beginning and by the end you couldn’t separate us.”

Dog sledding in Minnesota has not been the only adventure that Mabry has been able to participate in while a member of Raytown Girl Scout Troop 3157.

“We went to Maine in summer of 2005. It was a blast, we went to the beach almost everyday. We went sea kayaking and tide-pooling. We stayed at the College of the Atlantic which was beautiful. Also, one year at resident camp I spent 10 days 'roughing it' instead of staying in cabins. We went out and found a spot in the middle of the woods and dug out a spot to put our tents up. We had to cook all our meals except a few times and we were definitely queens of the camp! All the other campers idolized us for being able to camp out by ourselves for that long.”

Outside of Girl Scouts, Mabry stays active in her school, swimming; playing in the band; singing in the choir; and participating in theatre. Mabry is currently working on Raytown High School’s play Big River: The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Mabry will play the part of Jo Harper.

It is not unusual for girls who are active in Girl Scouts to also be active in their schools.

“We have a really strong teen program. Girls, like Sara, who really have been active in the community – girls who have grown up in girl scouting,” Sally Allen, membership manager, said.

“By the time our Girls Scouts are in their high school years, most of those girls who are in those leadership roles, that are top their class, are Girl Scouts. They’ve taught them leadership all throughout the way, taught them to be independent, they can go on a camping trip and pack their own stuff, they can be responsible for themselves. Raytown is really lucky. We have a really strong teen program.”

The friendships and opportunities that Mabry has been given in Girl Scouts are what kept her involved in the program.

“We do so much. There is so many things that you can do when involved in Girl Scouts – so many opportunities that you don’t have otherwise.”

Mabry began the Girl Scouts program as a Brownie (ages 6-8) and is currently working on her Gold Award (the Girl Scout equivalent to the Boy’s Eagle Scout Award).

For more information on Girls Scouts or to volunteer visit www.girlscoutsksmo.org