BG Girl Scouts honored with special achievement award

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Girl Scout Troop 10799 in Bowling Green was awarded the Patrick Gass Special Achievement Award on Aug. 7 at the Lewis & Clark Trail Heritage Foundation National Convention in Pittsburgh.

This troop has been together since kindergarten and is in their junior year at Bowling Green High School.

The troop is the first Girl Scout troop to earn a patch from the foundation.

“We were chosen to do this because one of our troop members, Maggie Layne, is the great granddaughter of Eugene Gass Painter, who was the great grandson of Patrick Gass, who was one of the members of the Lewis & Clark Expedition,” said Diane Mott, one of the troop leaders.

Painter was appalled to learn that there were only Boy Scout patches about the Expedition, so he and his daughter, Sue Strunk, worked with other members of the LCTHF to create a Lewis & Clark patch for Girl Scouts, Mott said.

“Now that our troop has completed and been awarded the patch, we will work with local Girl Scout Councils to make the patch available to other Girl Scout troops,” she said.

In order to complete the patch, the Girl Scouts studied the Lewis & Clark Expedition, including the recent naming of Pittsburgh as the starting point of the expedition. They read excerpts from Patrick Gass’ Expedition journal, practiced journaling and researched and cooked food that would have been eaten by expedition members. They also spent time in Pittsburgh hiking and learning about the history of Pittsburgh and how it relates to the expedition.

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