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Girl Scouts in Billerica

The Girl Scouts in Billerica are the local troops of the Girl Scouts of the USA, organized in the town since the mid-1920s and today grouped in a Billerica service unit. The first record of them is in the school report of 1925, which lists "girl scouts" among the extracurricular interests of the upper grades and the high school; at the Fall Town Meeting of October 7, 2025 the Billerica troops were described as "celebrating their 100th Year Anniversary." No Girl Scout house or hall of their own has been found in the town records: the troops met in the schools and other public rooms, and camped in the town forests.

In 1926 the high school principal reported that "the Girl Scouts have a strong troop and are doing excellent work," meeting every Wednesday after school in one of the basement rooms of Howe High School. In October 1926 the troop gave the school a tree to replace one on the grounds that had been mutilated the previous December, and the gift was listed in the town report beside the gifts of the Ladies of the G.A.R. and the 1900 Club. In 1927 the troop still met in the school basement on Wednesdays, with two of the high school teachers, Miss Dora Tutein, who taught bookkeeping and arithmetic, and Miss Charlotte Paulsen, who taught geography, in charge of its activities. In 1928 the Girl Scouts and one troop of Boy Scouts shared the basement as their meeting place.

The Board of Public Welfare thanked the Girl Scouts in 1962 and 1963 for their help, and at the annual Town Meeting of March 13, 1965 North Billerica Girl Scout Troop 329 attended as guests, accompanied by Carol Bruyere. Girl Scout troops camped with the Boy Scouts in the Jones Town Forest and on the Martina Gage lot in East Billerica from the late 1960s, when the Town Forest Committee thanked "the Boy and Girl Scouts and their Leaders" for keeping the camp sites in order, until vandalism reduced their use of the forest in 1973. In 1970, when Billerica joined its namesake Billericay, England, in marking the 350th anniversary of the Mayflower, the town report printed photographs of the "Girl Scouts of Billerica and Billericay" and of the "Girl and Boy Scouts of Billerica in Billericay", alongside Representative Stanley J. Bocko and other town officials; that winter the Boy and Girl Scouts also sang carols for the tenants of the Greenwood Apartments. In 1972 two Girl Scouts earned Library Aide badges helping at the Bennett Public Library, and in 1974 Town Meeting gave unanimous consent for a group of Girl Scouts to watch from the meeting room.

From the 2000s the town reports record Girl Scout service projects alongside the Boy Scouts' Eagle projects. In October 2001 the Spar and Spindle Girl Scout Council brought its Volksmarch, a walk to acquaint scouts with historic places in North Billerica, to the new Middlesex Canal museum visitor center in the Faulkner Mills. Girl Scouts installed trail markers at Vietnam Veterans Park in 2002, Shawsheen Valley Technical High School drafted designs for a Girl Scout ecology sign in 2003, and in 2008 a Girl Scout completed her Gold Award project for the Recreation Department. When the Billerica Section of the Middlesex Canal Commission took part in Green-Up Day on May 1, 2010, Troop 60129, led by Angela Rzeszut, cleaned up Lowell Street and planted the flower boxes, and the commission later reported that the Reardon Room was the site of the kick-off of the Girl Scouts' older girl program, for grades 6 to 12, on October 21, 2012. That year Congresswoman Niki Tsongas met local Boy and Girl Scouts at the museum to learn about their water projects. The Recreation Commission reported in 2013 that two Silver Award Girl Scouts had marked the trails at the Warren H. Manning State Forest, one had rebuilt the community garden sign at Vietnam Veterans Park, two had run story programs and stocked a book bin at the Kids Konnection Playground, and a Gold Award Girl Scout had completed the story book trail at the state forest. A Silver Award project in 2014 added a walkway and plantings at the sign of the senior center, the Billerica Council on Aging, where Girl Scouts also planted flowers and made greeting cards and placemats for Meals on Wheels; in 2016 two scouts made a "Flora and Fauna" project for the Manning forest and another brought bird houses to Kohlrausch Park.

The Girl Scouts remain active in the town. At the Fall Town Meeting of October 7, 2025, Moderator John J. McKenna invited them to lead the Pledge of Allegiance, and Daisy, Brownie, Junior and Cadette Girl Scouts from Troops 63214, 84242, 64195, 67435, 67436 and 82394, among them recipients of the Bronze Award, recited the Girl Scout Promise and Law, escorted by troop leader Andrea Toomey and Debra Fox, the Billerica Service Unit Coordinator.

Girl Scouts in Billerica

Girl Scouts in Billerica

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