NAHANT — A small group of Nahant Girl Scouts are working on big projects.
Girls from three troops, a fourth grade, sixth grade, and middle school troop, teamed up to hand out collected hats, gloves, and coats for adults and children seeking help at My Brother’s Table over the weekend. All 50 coats and more than 100 pairs of gloves and hats, were handed out within an hour, said troop leader Roxanne Schena.
While the scouts were there, they rolled up their sleeves and served dinner and dessert to patrons.
“I asked them driving home, ‘how do you feel about all that?'” said Schena. “I always get sentimental about it. For me, I have them go because I want them to realize just how good they have it. It’s hard when you live in such a small community because they don’t see it.”
The girls found the experience humbling, she said.
This wasn’t the first time the scouts crossed the causeway with a little bit to give back.
Last year, they gathered travel-size toiletries and packaged them into kits filled with shampoo, conditioner, floss, wipes, soap, razors, Q-tips, toothbrushes, and other necessities.
More than 100 kits were given, directly by the girls, to homeless families living at The Bridge House, a family shelter in Lynn run by the Lynn Shelter Association and funded by the state Department of Housing and Community Development.
Schena’s daughter, Ella, visited the shelter and said she was surprised to see locks on the small refrigerators in each room, up to seven children sharing a room with their parents, and the amount of empty space on the bookshelves. She went home and gathered 20 of her books to bring back to the homeless children.
Girl Scouts at the elementary level have an extremely high participation rate in Nahant. This year, about 80 percent of sixth grade girls and 100 percent of fourth grade girls participate. There are 12 students in each troop.
The middle school troop has dwindled over the years from seven members to three. The three remaining girls have plans to stick with it through high school, said Schena.
