Five Girl Scouts from Westfield Troop 20173 joined 7,000 of their Girl Scout sisters on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge for the Girl Scouts of Northern California Council’s Golden Gate Bridging Ceremony.

Five Girl Scouts from Westfield Troop 20173 joined 7,000 of their Girl Scout sisters on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge for the Girl Scouts of Northern California Council’s Golden Gate Bridging Ceremony.

A bridging ceremony is when girls move up from one Girl Scout level to the next. The Golden Gate event welcomed girls bridging from Juniors to Cadettes to participate. Junior Girl Scouts are girls who are in fourth or fifth grade. When a girl enters sixth grade, she becomes a Cadette. All of Troop 20173 was eligible to participate.

Girl Scouts Brooke Luce, Lilly Teeter, Desiree Bowen, Grace Graham and Lily Hafner, joined Girl Scout co-leaders Patricia Bowen and Wendy Graham on a four-day trip across the country. The event was just over four weeks away when the co-leaders initially learned about it.

“We’ve had bridging ceremonies over small local bridges before,” Patty Bowen said. “When we found out girls on the West Coast bridged over one of the Engineering Wonders of the World, we were in.”

Bowen added, “Our small community just came together to make sure we could afford it. It gives me goosebumps to think of everyone who helped to make this happen. We received donations from our local American Legion, Legion Auxiliary, VFW, VFW Auxiliary, Women of the Moose, and Westfield Fisheries, along with many personal donations people made when they heard about what we wanted to do and the opportunity we wanted to give these girls. We even had most of the money for our seven flights paid for by one individual donor. It was that one anonymous donation that got the ball rolling.”

In the end, the girls were able to see redwoods in Muir Woods, tour San Francisco by bus, visit Sausalito, take a ferry ride past Alcatraz, ride a cable car, and see the sea lions on Pier 39.

“And that’s all besides the main event,” Wendy Graham said. “Bridging day included walking across the Golden Gate Bridge, various Girl Scout stations set up in Chrissy Field, and our girls got to meet the CEO of Girl Scouts of Northern California and earned her special CEO patch. The ceremonies closed with the largest friendship circle in the world, which was truly awesome to see and experience.”

Troop 20173 at Golden Gate Bridge.jpg in august 4newsroom