If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll know that since 2020, I’ve been attempting to get some sort of outdoor program for older girls up and running in my council. I haven’t provided an update since my last post about visiting the Adventurers in the Skyline council, so the following encompasses some rambling thoughts about what’s going on.

Here’s a little bit of history in case you’re just now joining us.  In the summer of 2019, GSUSA released guidelines to resurrect Trailblazer and Mariner troops targeting girls in 8th through 12th grade. My co-leader and I decided to set up a council-wide Trailblazer troop in the fall of 2019 and recruited leaders from different parts of the council. We kicked off in the fall of 2020, and our first year was a resounding success due largely in part to the fact that all other activities had been cancelled due to covid regulations. We filled up for every event and had waiting lists for most of them. The second year still went well, although we didn’t have as many girls attend our events overall. However, by the third year, the world had gone back to normal, and we were dead in the water. We cancelled all but one event due to a lack of registrants, and interest in the troop was low. During this time, two other Trailblazer troops tried to make a go of it and weren’t successful either. We didn’t want to give up on the idea though, so we tried partnering with our council and got rid of the troop model but still called ourselves Trailblazers M2M. In other words, a girl didn’t have to join a TB troop in order to participate, and our events were advertised on the council calendar and open to any girl in 8th through 12th grade. We did a little better, but some events were still cancelled due to low registration. Continue reading