She doesn’t go door to door selling cookies anymore, but 70 years after she joined the Girl Scouts, Lynn Williams is still involved.
The Greenville resident is now project manager for the Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay Council and instead of peddling boxes of Thin Mints, she’s running multi-million dollar capital campaigns.
“I’ve just always loved the Girl Scouts' set of values, which I consider to be universal,” said Williams.
Williams joined the Girl Scouts when she was 7 as a Brownie, later volunteered as a Troop leader when her daughters were young, then served as a board member for 22 years before being hired as project manager in 2004.
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Meet Lynn Name: Lynn Williams |
She jumped right into a multi-million dollar project to improve and upgrade the four camps operated by the Girls Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay Council.
Under Williams’ guidance, the construction of the Science and Technology Lodge in Hockessin was finished and the building attained LEED-Platinum status, the only building in Delaware and the only Girl Scout structure in the nation to receive that green building recognition.
The Girl Scouts dedicated the lodge to Williams in February for her dedication to the organization and environmental advocacy.
The focus of the Girl Scouts has changed since she was a Brownie, Williams said, and nowhere is that more apparent than at the Science and Technology Lodge, where girls learn skills that could benefit them in math and engineering careers.
“Girls have to have skills they can earn a living from,” she said. “But discovering a passion for what you are good at and making it a career is ideal.”
The most useful lesson Williams learned from her time as a Girl Scout was how to develop projects, something she now does full time. It’s rewarding to see how relevant the Girl Scouts is for girls today, she said, and how many people benefit from the organization.
What she enjoys most about her work is the diversity, she said.
“People different from me come with a different perspective, and I love that and I learn from that,” she said.
And though the capital campaign is now in its final year, Williams has no plans to slow down – she is co-chairing the Girl Scouts’ search for a new headquarters.
She’s looking forward to help lead the search, she said, and to continue to keep the Girl Scouts a relevant part of the lives of so many girls.
