They managed to fit the Taj Mahal, the Eiffel Tower, a Bavarian village and more than 1,000 Girl Scouts into the Georgia Mountains Center on Saturday.
Cardboard and Styrofoam stood in for stone and steel for the scaled-down replicas, as Brownies, Juniors and Cadets explored the food, dance, music and other cultural customs of 14 countries on World Thinking Day, a Girl Scouts tradition that goes back to 1926.
For every booth visited, girls got their passports stamped and learned a little more about the world they live in.
“You learn about how girl scouting and everyday life is across the entire world,” said Rachael Smith, a 12-year-old from East Hall who handed out hot Chi tea and pressed on sparkling “Bindi,” or body dots, for visitors to her troop’s booth dedicated to India, which chartered its first Girl Scout troop in 1912. “I get to meet so many people and learn about all these other cultures.”
World Thinking Day was held in Gainesville for the third straight year, drawing about 1,600 registrants from across the state. From sampling sweetbread from Fiji to banging on a line of congas on the arena stage, girls celebrated the diversity of their planet while learning leadership roles and networking with scouts from other parts of the state.
“They’re widening their global view,” said Angie Trantham, program specialist for the Girl Scouts of Historic Georgia, which has members in 144 of the state’s 159 counties. “It’s so important for them to realize there’s another world outside their community.”
“You can see those ‘a-ha’ moment when they visit these other countries and learn something new,” said troop leader Becky Hutchinson, whose Hall Plains Service Unit pitched in to paint the cardboard walls and Styrofoam onion domes of the faux Taj. “Not only are they learning about other countries, but they’re learning about other Girl Scouts and the places they’ve been.”
At the Hall Hills troop’s Germany booth, 10-year-old Haley McDonald passed out applesauce and pretzels, a hand-painted backdrop of a Bavarian village behind her.
The international exposition had the look of a World’s Fair built by children, a more modest version of Walt Disney World’s EPCOT theme park.
“We like to think we’re as good as EPCOT,” Trantham said.