Girl Scouts won't be just thinking about the world around them Saturday.

They'll be celebrating international cultures through booths and displays they have made and foods they'll sample.

The festivities are part of the annual World Thinking Day, which began globally in 1926 as Thinking Day.

"Girls participate in activities that celebrate international friendship and a reminder that Girls Scouts of the USA is part of a global community," said Angie Trantham, Gainesville-based program specialist for the Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia. "It's a fun day."

The regional organization, which spans all but Northwest Georgia, plans to hold the event for the second consecutive year Saturday at the Georgia Mountains Center in Gainesville.

Trantham said about 1,600 people have registered.

"This is one of the key holidays of Girl Scouts, I guess you could say," she said.

She expects 25 booths will be set up for the event, which is open to the public and is set to run from 9 a.m. to noon and 1-4 p.m.

"It is set up almost like convention-style, where the girls will go through the booths," Trantham said. "The (booths) have food samples and games."

County service units, some comprising many troops, put together the booths. Because of its size, Hall County has the Hills and Plains service units, which plan to feature Germany and India at the event, respectively.

"The girls vote and decide what country they want to do," Trantham said. "And the girls plan the booths."

Last year, "we had a 20-foot-tall Eiffel Tower," she said. "This year, we will have a couple of castles and the Taj Mahal."

According to the Girl Scouts of the USA Web site, Thinking Day was created at the fourth Girl Guide/Girl Scout International Conference.

Conference delegates chose Feb. 22 as Thinking Day because it was the birthday of Lord Baden-Powell, founder of the Boy Scout movement, and his wife, Olave, who served as world chief guide.

The Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia are celebrating the weekend after since they were busy delivering cookie orders last weekend.

Members at the 30th World Conference, held in Ireland in 1999, changed the name from Thinking Day to World Thinking Day.

In Georgia, service units observed World Thinking Day on their own for years. The Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia began marking the day three years ago, with the event taking place the first year at Gainesville State College in Oakwood.

"It's very hands-on for the girls," Trantham said. "Girl Scouts is all about leadership and building girls into the leaders of tomorrow and today. The girls use those leadership skills to develop what they want to do (at the event). They're just expanding their world view."

Arvin Scott, a percussionist and University of Georgia instructor, will conduct some interactive workshops with the girls.

"We'll have 50 girls on the stage drumming," Trantham said.

Becky Hutchinson and Carmen Smith, co-leaders of Girl Scout Troop 13549, which meets at Chestnut Mountain Church, have built a model of the Taj Mahal.

Smith said World Thinking Day is "one of my favorite things that the girls do each year because it really does open their eyes to so many different cultures and expose them to different things they wouldn't normally (see).

"It helps them develop an appreciation for other cultures, their traditions and foods," she added. "It's just a good experience for them."

Troop member Anna Minor, 12, a seventh-grader at South Hall Middle School, said the event is fun "because you get to learn about different countries."

Plus, "you get to meet other Girl Scouts and do other stuff," she said.