Scouts hold World Thinking Day program

Olentangy area Girl Scouts are expanding their cultural understanding this month.

Around 1,250 Girl Scouts of all ages are observing World Thinking Day and participating in activities to learn about ancient Egypt and Girl Scout groups, called Girl Guides, in today's Egypt.

"We've done annual World Thinking Day for the past 12 years," said Debbie Winn, a Cadettes troop leader.

"We want to teach the girls about another country and that there is girl scouting in other countries besides ours."

In previous years, the Olentangy service unit program explored facts about Kenya, Africa, Switzerland and Brazil, Winn said.

"My troop of Cadettes and I have always been intrigued by Egypt," Winn said. "We decided to look at ancient Egypt, except when it came to teaching the girls about the Girl Scouts in that country."

The Girl Scout organization has held World Thinking Day for decades, said Sara West, spokesperson for the Girl Scouts of Ohio's Heartland Council to which the Olentangy service unit belongs.

"It tries to connect Girl Scouts worldwide," West said. "We have the Girl Guides in 145 countries. In the United States, the name is Girl Scouts, outside the U.S. it's Girl Guides."

Winn and the other organizers started researching Egypt last year, she said.

They studied different types of pyramids and the lives of children in ancient Egypt, including the types of foods they ate, games and activities they played, how they were educated, and how music and dance related to their lives.

When the program wraps up, roughly 87 percent of the service unit's scouts will have enjoyed various activities including:

• Relay races and archaeological digs of replica Egyptian artifacts, gems and miniature animals.

• Making a replica of a papyrus flower.

• Viewing animals brought by the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium.

• Learning how to write in hieroglyphics.

• Taking belly dancing instruction.

• Sampling mint tea and apricot paste, which is similar to a fruit roll up.

• Learning about Girl Guides in Egypt.

"Girl Guides in Egypt are completely and utterly service-driven," Winn said in a press release. "Girls learn trades in scouting and when they reach age 17 or 18, they are expected to teach the younger girls what they know. They always help each other and are extremely community-minded, coming to aid when their neighbors need help."

"Thinking Day was first created in 1926," the www.GirlScouts.org Web site says.

"Feb. 22 was dedicated to the day and troops hold programs around that time of year dedicated to thinking about other countries," West said. "We want them to think and learn about other cultures and countries."

The Olentangy service unit is the largest in the Ohio Heartland Council's 30-county region, West said, noting that the region "has 35,000 girls and the Olentangy unit has 148 troops with 1,431 girls."

To learn more about the Girl Scouts in the area, visit www.gsohiosheartland.org.