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Silt grandmother is a real trooper
Friend calls her an ‘incredible role model’ for Girl Scouts
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Girl Scout leader June Zeinstra smiles as she is surrounded by members of her young troop.
Kelley Cox/Post Independent
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By Pete Fowler
Post Independent Staff
Glenwood Springs, CO Colorado
March 24, 2008
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GLENWOOD SPRINGS, Colorado — June Zeinstra pondered downsizing the Girl Scout troop she leads in Silt after it grew from 13 to 36 in five years.
“But when I see these little faces saying, ‘Can I please be a scout?’ I can’t say no,” she said.
Zeinstra started leading the troop five years ago for her granddaughter. She wanted to give her the opportunity to continue in Girl Scouts after the previous leader stepped down and no one else seemed interested.
“It’s phenomenal what she’s done with them,” said Linda Jamsen, a friend of Zeinstra’s who remembers Girl Scout songs and campouts from 35 years ago. “She’s an incredible role model. Unless you hunt, fish or play sports, there’s not a whole lot going on for kids, especially girls. … June’s kind of stepped in and filled this huge gap, and she’s just going unnoticed.”
Jamsen said Zeinstra’s teaching the Girl Scouts to respect themselves and others and to be involved in the community.
“Boy scouts, they learn survival skills and they go in the woods and they learn how to whittle,” Jamsen said. “These girls learn how to grow up and be something in their lives.”
Zeinstra enjoys leading the troop to see the girls grow and mature. The look on a girl’s face after she helps a girl master a song or overcome fears of sleeping outside away from mom and dad is the most rewarding. Zeinstra’s picked up momentum over the five years. Meetings grew from an hour to as long as two hours and 15 minutes. Crafts, badges and troop government are regular parts of the meetings.
“That first meeting I’m looking at those 13 little faces thinking, ‘How am I going to make this last for an hour,’” she said. “As time goes on an hour didn’t seem long enough.”
| June Zeinstra |
Age: 57
Occupation: Works in patient financial services for the Grand River Hospital District, volunteers to lead Silt Girl Scout troop
Birthplace: Pipestone, Minn.
When did you move to Garfield County and why? In 1982. Her husband accepted a job in the area, and they’ve been here ever since. |
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Each Girl Scout meeting in Silt starts with a flag ceremony.
“I’m really kind of into this patriotism thing,” Zeinstra said. “It’s too easy right now for kids to go home and flop in front of the TV and play a video game and forget that we’re at war.”
The Girl Scout troop recently finished selling 5,472 boxes of Girl Scout cookies, mostly in and around Silt, Zeinstra said. She’s teaching the scouts responsibility by having them help plan and raise funds for a trip to Mount Rushmore National Memorial in South Dakota in June. There they’ll lower the American flag, fold it and present it to a ranger on duty and sing the national anthem, among other things. Zeinstra got the idea when she was there last summer and saw another Girl Scout troop from Colorado lower the flag.
Zeinstra’s putting a local touch on having the Girl Scouts collect cookies for soldiers. Before, boxes purchased for soldiers would go impersonally through an agency in Grand Junction, but this year, the cookies will go through a Silt man who’s stationed in Baghdad, Iraq.
“We’re excited to send them to him, and I’m sure we’ll get responses,” Zeinstra said. “The whole Mount Rushmore patriotism lesson will really mean more to them knowing they’re going to someone serving who’s local.”
In her spare time, Zeinstra plays alto saxophone in the Hot Strings Band. She’s even had the Girl Scouts perform with the band. Other than that, Zeinstra might be spotted riding on a Honda Goldwing motorcycle.
Contact Pete Fowler: 384-9121
pfowler@postindependent.com
Post Independent, Glenwood Springs Colorado CO
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