For two Girl Scouts of South Countys Troop 11294, summer 2014 will be remembered as a time of adventure, growth and world travel.
Claire Cromley, a sophomore at The John Cooper School, and Claire Miller, a homeschooled sophomore, both traveled overseas as part of the Girl Scouts Destinations program.
Cromley, who joined the Girl Scouts as a Daisy nine years ago, traveled to Ireland with the Destination Ireland Multi-Sport Adventure, and Miller, who has been a Girl Scout for six years, visited New Zealand, Australia and Fiji as part of Destination Amazing Oz and the South Pacific.
To be selected, the girls had to submit an application to the Girl Scout Council including references and an essay describing why they wanted to go on the respective trips.
With the help of scholarships from the Girl Scout Council and money saved up from babysitting and lifeguarding, both girls were able to make their dream trips a reality.
Miller explained that she was first drawn to the Destinations program when she went to a Girl Scout Open House several years ago and saw a booth some girls had set up sharing their experiences with Destinations.
They had these big poster boards with pictures from all their trip experiences, Miller said. They seemed very confident in themselves, which really drew me to traveling ... they told me this saying, to travel is to discover yourself. I wanted to try it out for myself.
Miller experienced her first Destinations trip to Panama and Costa Rica in 2012, where she became a certified scuba diver.
For her second Destinations trip this summer she chose the New Zealand, Australia and Fiji experience because she wanted to see someplace different.
Im a big adventurer, Miller said. So I was really into going as far as I could.
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