By Bill Parry
The members of Girl Scout Troop 6000 were honored by the City Council Tuesday for making history as the first troop in New York City history exclusively for homeless girls. City Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer (D-Sunnyside) presented each of the girls with a proclamation to celebrate their founding last month.
“The girls loved it. They have never been to City Hall before and they got a tour and were treated like VIPs,” Troop Leader Giselle Burgess said. “They were so excited to be in a place where laws are passed. They got to sit in council members’ seats and meet a lot of important people. They kept saying how much fun they had and they want to go back.”
The idea was hatched in November when Van Bramer and a Girl Scout troop from Sunnyside were serving Thanksgiving dinner to homeless women living in Pam’s Place, a shelter for homeless women in the former Verve Hotel in Dutch Kills.
“It was there that we dreamed of a Girl Scout troop created specifically for homeless girls,” he said. “With Troop 6000, that dream became a reality.”
The Department of Homeless Services hosted a roundtable with Girl Scout leadership, including Burgess, a 32-year-old single mother of five children, who became homeless last summer when the home she rented in Flushing was sold to make way for a condominium.
Her family ended up living at the Sleep Inn hotel, a temporary shelter that is just north of the Queensbridge Houses at 38-71 13th St. in Long Island City. That is where Burgess started Troop 6000 with the help of Sunnyside resident Meredith Maskara, the chief operating officer of the Girl Scouts of Greater New York and a close friend of Van Bramer’s.
“Troop 6000 is a clear testament of the mission of Girl Scouts of Greater New York. The vision for Troop 6000 is a citywide expansion providing security, sisterhood, and programmatic consistency to the girls and women living in shelters,” Maskara said. “The expansion of the troop would allow women and girls the opportunity to remain part of the same troop, no matter what shelter they reside in, receive leadership development and programming and be the anchor that makes them feel like they are a part of the community. The current girls in the troop, are demonstrating that Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence and character who truly make the world a better place.”
As the girls received their proclamations, Burgess made a short speech to the assembled crowd.
“I basically spoke about why this initiative is so important and about my own struggles as a parent living in the shelter,” Burgess said. “I explained that the girls bring joy to their parents when they tell them all the exciting things they’ve done at meetings. Their joy and excitement brings so many smiles to us parents and pride.”
In the past week, members of Troop 6000 have also become media darlings as network TV crews have stopped by the Sleep Inn.
“The girls are loving the media attention and they feel like rock stars,” Burgess said. “They know that they are representing all girls in their situation and want them to enjoy being Girl Scouts as well.”
Meanwhile, Van Bramer says he is deeply committed to seeing this troop’s expansion to other homeless shelters all across New York City where the need is great. According to an analysis by the city’s Independent Budget Office, there has been a steady rise in the number of public school students in the shelter system since the 2011-2012 school year.
Queens had a 50 percent increase in the number of homeless students attending public school in the borough from 2,651 during the 2011-2012 school year to 3,971 during the 2015-2016 school year.
Reach reporter Bill Parry by e-mail at bparr
