Scouts Meet Up on Trail of Life

The 65 Girl Scouts who got together for lunch at a restaurant in Fullerton recently didn’t know they were having an educational, “cross-cultural” experience--they just thought they were having a good time.

Forty-two of those scouts--ages 5 to 16--were daughters of economically disadvantaged, primarily one-parent black and Latino families from northeast Pasadena. Joining them for an afternoon of feasting and camaraderie were 23 Scouts from the Fullerton area--most from Pacific Drive Elementary School.

For the Pasadena Scouts, the outing included an RTD bus ride to the downtown Los Angeles Union Station, an Amtrak train ride (the first ever for most of the Scouts) to Fullerton and a bus ride back.

Sandi Hambric, a field director for the Girl Scout Council of Orange County, called the event a “cross-county experience.”

“The Scouts are from very different areas, economically and culturally,” Hambric said. “It’s educational--it adds to the kids’ awareness that everybody’s not so different after all.”

While most of the Fullerton Scouts were attired in their full Girl Scout regalia, the Pasadena Scouts cannot afford full uniforms. Some wore Girl Scout T-shirts, however. (The day’s adventure cost them a nominal fee; corporate donors picked up most of the expenses.)

A few awkward moments in the Amtrak station parking lot when the groups first met were relieved by Pasadena volunteer Dorothea Bradley’s good-natured pairing off of Scouts from the two groups by age.

After a short hand-in-hand walk to the restaurant, the Scouts enjoyed a feast of Chinese food. Then, with appetites and curiosities satisfied, the Pasadena group boarded its chartered bus back home. The afternoon went so well that Hambric said plans are in the works for a second get-together around Christmas, when the Fullerton Scouts may get to take the train and bus ride to Pasadena.