Enjoying a delicious snack of Girl Scout Cookies never fails to remind me of my days in my troop on the near West Side. I was a Brownie, Junior, and Cadette... should have gone up to Senior, but was in too much of a hurry to grow up. I worked for the Council in the late 90s, and have considered becoming a leader from time to time, but life never seems to slow down enough.

I especially appreciate the Michigan Metro Girl Scout Council's past and continuing commitment to inner-city Scouting. It is because of the Scouts that I was able to camp, earn badges, go places and see things that I wouldn't have been able to otherwise, and gain confidence. I went to my very first concert without parents alongside my Cadette troop sisters at Joe Louis Arena in 1991. We attended a talk show at Madonna University. And I met girls from all over the Metro at Camp Metamora, Camp Innisfree, and Camp Narrin. [[I'll never forget a special Cadette and Senior winter camp at Narrin in the early 1990s. We had a blast!)

The building where our Neighborhood Service Unit's troops were based was the old Calvary Presbyterian Church on Grand River, one of our fabulous ruins. My mom's best friend was our NSU leader, and it was her church. They've long since moved to the outskirts of the city. But less than 20 years ago, on some weekday evenings, you might have seen a tall, skinny, bespectacled brown girl, enjoying herself there.

What are your Detroit-area scouting memories?