High Life A WEEKLY FORUM FOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS : Scouts: More Than Just Selling Cookies

Back in the fourth grade, almost half the students in my class proudly wore either navy-blue Cub Scout uniforms or patch-laden Girl Scout sashes.

But some time during junior high, many of these same kids began to think the uniforms looked too uncool, and scouting became a social liability.

Pressure from friends and busy schedules crowded out scouting for most. Yet those who stayed involved say the drawbacks are minimal compared to the rewards.

Richa Varma, 14, a freshman at El Toro High School, quit Girl Scouts after the sixth grade but decided to rejoin this year.

“I missed it,” she said. “There was so much to do, and it was so interesting. I love camping. You meet new people, and I just enjoyed it a lot.

“When I first joined (again), I didn’t tell anybody. But as soon as I started selling Girl Scout cookies at school, people would say, ‘You’re still a Girl Scout?’ There are some people out there who are like, ‘You’re in Girl Scouts! Get away! Don’t be such a baby.’ But it’s something I like to do, and if they can’t accept that, that’s their problem.”

Karin Carlson, director of program services for the Girl Scout Council of Orange County, said: “If they can tough out the peer pressure, there are so many opportunities that open up to them for leadership, for service, for travel.”

High school students in scouting, called seniors, do more than go camping and sell cookies. Scouting combines community service with training in such diverse areas as surfing, cooking and career planning. Similarly to the younger Scouts who earn badges for activities, senior Scouts participate in special projects to earn patches that show they have mastered certain skills.

Senior Boy Scouts work toward achieving Eagle status, the highest honor in scouting, while senior girls aim for the Eagle’s equivalent, the Gold Award.

To earn the rank of Eagle, a Boy Scout must plan and organize a 100-hour service project. David Jedynak, 18, a Mission Viejo High senior, expects to earn his Eagle honor next month after setting up a project to resurrect a dying trail in Trabuco Canyon.

Jeeps roamed the Trabuco Canyon Trail 25 years ago, but weather and plants eroded the path, making it almost too narrow in places to walk. For his project, Jedynak and his fellow Scouts cleared trees, moved rocks and chopped down plants to make it a usable foot trail again.

Scouting has also allowed Jedynak to backpack in the sand dunes along the California-Arizona border, where the third movie of the Star Wars trilogy, “Return of the Jedi,” was filmed.

On one rock-climbing trip that placed the Scouts in a 300-foot vertical cave, Jedynak had a chance to practice rescue techniques when one of the climbers fell. With his troop, he has also canoed 14 miles in Mission Bay in San Diego, helped with a local children’s Easter egg hunt and collected food and shoes for children in Mexico.

Jedynak said that besides the satisfaction he has gained by serving his community, he has experienced personal rewards.

In 1988, he was named Orange County’s outstanding senior patrol leader for his commitment to planning and organizing his troop’s activities. As a result, Orange County developer William Lyon invited him to lead the flag salute at a $5,000-a-plate charity dinner at a country club in Coto de Caza.

Jedynak is near the top of scouting, and he has had to face the negative reactions of others all along the way. Peer pressure was greatest in junior high school, he said, although he adds it was never particularly troublesome.

“It didn’t bother me because I was proud of what I was doing,” he said. “I was a leader, and I did get chosen to go to this fancy lunch at this very, very fancy country club. . . .

“It hurts a little bit when you see people (putting down scouting). The biggest way that it hurts is they don’t know what they’re talking about. They haven’t been in Scouts, and they’re missing things. It’s like, ‘You wouldn’t say that if only you knew what it was like.’ ”

Maarten VanGestel, a 14-year-old freshman at El Toro High, agreed: “Some people do have that attitude, but then I tell them what we do, and they don’t say anything anymore. They’ve never climbed Mt. Whitney, gone rock climbing or anything.”

VanGestel, who has climbed Mt. Whitney, has also camped in the Sierra Nevada, learned first aid and become a certified lifeguard through scouting. He used his lifeguarding skills at a wheelchair sports camp at Saddleback College last spring vacation.

“Scouting has helped me learn leadership, and I’ve made a lot of friends through scouting,” VanGestel said.

Girl Scouts “is like a whole different set of friendships,” said Cheri Keller, a 16-year-old junior at Mission Viejo High. “We’re all really close, and it’s like a second family.”

Through scouting, Keller said, she has participated in several service projects, such as working with the Red Cross to assemble friendship kits--shampoo, conditioner and hairbrushes--for the homeless.

“It gives you self-confidence and makes you more aware of what’s going on in the community,” she said.

Between community service, interest projects for patches and camping trips, scouting can sometimes interfere with school activities.

“There’s a lot of competition out there from school activities and all,” the Girl Scout Council’s Carlson said, “but the girls we get are usually involved in sports or honor society or something else, and they have learned to juggle all of that.”

This year, a senior scouting event in Newport Harbor that will instruct girls in maritime skills such as rigging and Morse Code will be held on the weekend of El Toro’s prom.

Often, El Toro High’s Varma said, Scouts “have to choose between Girl Scouts and something else.”

Varma, who originally left scouting because she anticipated a busier schedule in junior high, said: “My parents were happy when I dropped out. They thought I was taking too much on.

“There are times when I wish I wasn’t in (Scouts) so I could do other things, but I think it’s worth it. To be really committed to Girl Scouts is just something that makes me feel good about myself.”

Jason Miller, 16, a sophomore at El Toro High, said scouting has helped build his self-image.

“I’ve learned that I can do a lot more than I thought I could do,” he said. “I never thought I could hang on the side of a cliff face while rock climbing, but I’ve done that in scouting. And I never thought I’d get used to leading people, but I’ve done that in scouting.”

Added Jedynak: “I learned things about myself, things about leadership, how to deal with people, dealing with the public, all these different skills that there would have been no chance for me to get anywhere else. I couldn’t have gotten it from varsity sports or marching band or anything like that.