By LAURA BROOKHART / Community Columnist

Make new friends, but keep the old.

One is silver and the other gold.

These familiar words and other songs from my own long-ago days of Girl Scouts were playing during the 100th Birthday Celebration held by our local troops on March 12 at the Helena Methodist Church.

Trish Coghlan, CEO of the Girl Scouts of North Central Alabama from the Birmingham office, was on hand to address everyone.

Coghlan said she anticipates more girls will be entering corporate and management jobs and working in the fields of science and technology, engineering and math in the near future.

Cake and punch were served amidst green and white balloons while colorful quilts made by various troops decorated the walls and scrapbooks memorialized many happy years of scouting.

Kyra Woodman, leader of senior Troop 6185, accepted a declaration from Mayor Penhale’s office declaring March to be Girl Scout Month in Helena.

A video presentation showed troop activities throughout the evening from Brownie Troop 308 (Leader Cindy Moore); Junior Troop 268 (Leaders Barbara Trayweek, Melissa Hudson and Melissa Porco); Cadette Troop 182 (Leader Raylene Gaddis); and Cadette Troop 313 (Leader Jan Hull).

Seven members of Troop 313, along with leader Jan Hull and her mother, Fredyce Smith, who were also Girl Scouts, recently returned from a February weekend in Savannah, Ga., where on the Heritage Tour, they visited founder Juliette Gordon Low’s birthplace, her gravesite in Laurel Grove Cemetery, the first Girl Scout headquarters, the Andrew Low House and participated in a pinning ceremony in the garden

“The highlight of our trip was sharing our favorite Girl Scout memories and dreams for the next hundred years,” they all agreed.

Locally, the troops have collected items for the Shelby Humane Society and Two by Two Rescue and some have helped with tornado clean-up and relief efforts.

Others have collected canned goods for shelters and many have sent cookies to soldiers.

Kyra Woodman shared that, “Courtney Allen is our latest Gold Award winner.”

She is currently a freshman at Huntingdon College in Montgomery. She recently attended the Girl Scouts Women of Distinction luncheon and will officially receive her award at a recognition banquet on April 14th.

Allen created a cookbook for special needs students that will be used in the PHS special education program and will hopefully become part of the curriculum for all Shelby County schools.

Laura Brookhart can be reached by email at labro16@yahoo.com.