Lower Price Hill Girl Scouts: 'It's either all of us or none of us'

As the after-school program at Oyler School wrapped up, a group of 13 girls gathered behind Stella Luggen and Sarah Groeschen at the door of Oyler School's cafeteria.

The girls, clad in pink puffy coats, Hello Kitty hats and furry boots, were as young as 6 and as old as 11.

With their small hands folded into one another's in friendship and for safety, they walked past black trash bags piled taller than they were. They walked across a broken-brick walkway. They walked past a silver, metal-perforated fence with R.I.P. Brian scrawled in black spray paint.

They didn't notice any of it. All they could think about was the Girl Scout meeting they were on their way to.

"Tell me about camp," a girl asks Luggen, who with Groeschen works at the community center and are assistant troop leaders.

"We'll get to sleep in tents or a lodge," Luggen explains. "There will be swimming and games. There will be kickball."

To most troops, Girl Scout Camp is a given. For Girl Scout Camp 49632, it's a dream. Girl Scout Troop 49632 is Lower Price Hill's first in so long nobody remembers the last time there was a traditional troop in the neighborhood. It's so new, the night ahead is only their sixth meeting.

And, of course, like everywhere else in the nation, it's Girl Scout Cookie time in Lower Price Hill.

They'll have to sell 1,500 boxes of cookies – $4 boxes of Thin Mints, Samoas and Trefoils – for all 17 girls in the troop to go.

But camp isn't a sure thing.

This is the kind of Girl Scout troop where Ebony Butts had to work to convince the Girl Scout Council there could even be a troop.

This is the kind of Girl Scout troop where Butts never even considered that they could have uniforms; the girl's parents can't afford them.

This is the kind of Girl Scout troop where the $65 cost-per-girl to go to camp isn't the kind of activity a parent just scrawls out a check for.

None of that is a deterrent for Butts, who is the director of youth outreach for Community Matters, the social service agency in the heart of Lower Price Hill.

"The reality is it may not happen," Butts said. "When I tell people I need to sell 1,500 boxes, they look at me like I lost my mind. When I tell them why, they generally purchase a box."

Leslie Rich, community engagement team leader for the Girl Scouts of Western Ohio, said Troop 49632 is the "first traditional troop in Lower Price Hill in a very very long time."

"This is a really big deal that we're creating something sustainable in the community," Rich said. "Girl Scouts isn't just cookies and crafts and camping. It is a real leadership development program for girls."

The Lower Price Hill troop joins 17,000 Girls Scouts locally.

Inside Community Matters, the girls convene at long tables in a sparse, but tidy room. Inspirational Cincinnati State posters decorate the room that's used for GED tutoring during the day.

There's a brief scuffle over the last "rolly chair," an orange office chair that has seen better days, but on this night means a fun spin around the room.

Animals crackers and water in donated Hudepohl paper beer cups are passed around.

On tonight's agenda: Sign-making for upcoming cookie sales outside of the West Price Hill Kroger.

First though, the girls raise three fingers in the air for the Girl Scout Promise.

A hush falls over the room, 9-year-old Gymila Jeffreys starts the group off.

"On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country; To help people at all times; and to live by the Girl Scout law."

They accidentally leave out the part about serving God, so they repeat it.

The group of 15 on this night – some who were dropped off by parents – break into smaller groups and huddle around white posters ready for decorating.

Butts offers a quick and easy marketing lesson: "We need pretty posters so the cookies will sell. Don't color over the letters."

Immediately there is a run on pink markers; more are brought out.

"What about glitter?" someone asks. Butts nixes the idea as messy, suggesting it would be better to add glitter on site.

It's the kind of project Girl Scouts all over Cincinnati were likely doing in the midst of the group's biggest fundraiser of the year. But life outside the walls of the community center are unlike any other Cincinnati neighborhood. Though it's small – just 16 blocks on the west edge of downtown – people don't ever leave the the mostly Appalachian neighborhood of about 1,000 residents.

Life expectancy is around 68, 20 years less than just a few miles away in Mount Adams. The high school has a 47 percent graduation rate.

Last fall for a story that ran in November, the Enquirer spent months with four Lower Price Hill teenagers.

"I just walk around all day long, in a circle," 16-year-old Kelsey McLean told The Enquirer. "That's all there is down here, a circle. What I'm looking for is something to do, anything to do."

Butts knows that's true. She sees the girls hanging out on street corners.

"There really isn't anything to do," Butts said. "They never leave this neighborhood because nobody ever told them, 'Look, this is not it.'

"It's generational," she said. "Their mom is still here, their grandma is here. Their aunts and uncles are still here. So what do they need to leave the neighborhood for?"

Jen Walters, President and CEO of Community Matters, said the troop truly belongs to the neighborhood.

"They take great pride in ownership," Walters said. "Lower Price Hill is meeting the needs of Lower Price Hill from within, rather than somebody coming in to fix the problem."

Butts, 32, grew up just up the road in East Price Hill, back when there were only few black families.

She was a Girl Scout; her mother, the troop leader.

She graduated from Mount St. Joseph with a degree in paralegal studies, but abandoned that career path for social work. She's five months into a two-year stint as an AmeriCorps Public Ally. In that role she's the youth director for Community Matters, the resource center in the heart of Lower Price Hill.

When she decided to bring a troop to the community she found there was no troop on the west side of Cincinnati that was available to these girls. You had to go to a certain school or attend a certain church to be in those troops.

At Butts' first meeting in November, a pizza party rally, she ended up with just four girls: her daughter, Jordyn, her two nieces and another leader's daughter. So she stood outside Oyler and talked to girls there about Girl Scouts. She stuffed fliers into mailboxes. She knocked on doors and talked to parents.

Moms were receptive, but hesitant. They were worried about the cost; they didn't want to walk their daughters from the after school program to the meeting.

The Girl Scout Council covered the $15 registration fee for each girl. Luggen and Groeschen promised to walk the girls to the meeting.

Butts tried again on Dec. 10.

This time, 20 girls showed up.

"People started to trust what I was saying," Butts said.

Jamya Jones, 11, a dab of black marker on her white T-shirt, said she looks forward to the weekly meetings.

"I like that a lot of girls come together," she said. "Just in case people don't have friends, they have some here."

On her part of the poster, she carefully lettered the message: "You need to be happy. That's why we have Girl Scouts."

Selling $4 boxes of cookies in a neighborhood where the median income is $9,600 a year is no easy task. In most troops the top sellers win prizes, they get to go to camp.

Here, in a parent meeting, everyone agreed: "It's either all of us or none of us."

There are no prizes, save that.

As the girls fill in bubble letters on the signs with pink and black stripes and tiny heart patterns – or as one 7-year-old did, a two-story house – on the posters, there's no talk about camp.

That's on purpose.

"I don't want to give them false hope," Butts said. "There is a lot of false hope in Lower Price Hill and East Price Hill ... People say we're going to do this. And then you're waiting for it to happen and it never happens."

So when they sell all the 1,500 boxes of cookies, they'll talk about camp.

Louie Bolin stands awkwardly on the outskirts of the meeting as it wraps up; he's there to walk his daughters, 7-year-old Destiny and 8-year-old Jasmine, to their home around the corner on Staebler Street.

The Girl Scouts are somewhat of a mystery to the 43-year-old, whose hair is held back in a black Sons of Anarchy bandana. But as soon as he and his wife heard a troop was being started he said they signed the girls up.

"It gives them something to do after school, something different," Bolin said. "I want them to get out in the world."

Buy cookies from Girl Scout Camp 49632

Cost: $4 per box

Mail

Please send your order and a check made out to Girl Scouts of Western Ohio, Troop 49632 to Community Matters, 2104 Saint Michael Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45204. Cookie orders will be available for pick up on March 13th and 14th from 10am to 2pm at our site located at 2118 Saint Michael Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45204.

To give a donation to help Troop 49632 participate in other activities throughout the year (field trips, badge earning activities, parties, etc.), send checks to Community Matters, 2104 Saint Michael Street, Cincinnati, Ohio 45204 with a memo line of: Troop 49632.

Online

E-mail Jen Walters at jen@cmcincy.org with orders.

Then send the money in her care to 2104 Saint Michael St., Cincinnati, Ohio, 45204.

Visit cmcincy.org to learn more about Community Matters.

How businesses can help

Companies can sponsor a Cookies & Milk Break. The cookies are provided by and served by Girl Scouts between March 6 and March 29. Cookies must be pre-ordered and will be credited to the troop specified. Call Brittany Troescher at 513-619-1434 or brittanytroescher@girlscoutsofwesternohio.org to plan.

In person

March 7

9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

East Price Hill Kroger

3609 Warsaw Avenue

Cincinnati, Ohio, 45204

March 14

12 p.m. to 3 p.m.

East Price Hill Kroger

3609 Warsaw Avenue

Cincinnati, Ohio, 45204

March 21

9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Sam's Club

5375 North Bend Road

Cincinnati, Ohio 45247

March 21

6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

Westwood Kroger

2310 Ferguson Road

Cincinnati, Ohio 45238

March 22

9 a.m. to 12 p.m.

East Price Hill Kroger

3609 Warsaw Avenue

Cincinnati, Ohio, 45204

Want to help Lower Price Hill?

You can become a tutor, teaching reading or art. You can donate toys, clothes and food. You can help in a thrift store or a food pantry. Or you can just write a check.

State Avenue United Methodist Church collects health and personal care items, socks and underwear for children, and small, nutritional food items that children can prepare for themselves. It can also use volunteers to teach arts and crafts and help with other programs at its Family Nights on Thursdays. Donations can be dropped off Sundays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. or Thursdays from 5 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. at the church, 690 State Ave., Cincinnati 45204. For information, call Pastor Nilsa Saliceti, 513-349-7095.

Santa Maria Community Services needs donations to continue its youth program, which provides tutoring, social skills development and family support. The City of Cincinnati will stop funding the program on Aug. 1, 2015. The center also needs tutors. Make checks payable to Santa Maria Community Services, 718 State Ave., Cincinnati 45204. For information, contact Jim Holmstrom, youth development program coordinator, 513-557-2710, ext. 507.

Education Matters, a nonprofit that works to remove educational barriers in Lower Price Hill, can use tutors and volunteers to help with monthly community dinners, its thrift store and food pantry. For information, call Jen Walters at 513-410-6732.

Bloc Ministries provides family support in Lower Price Hill and other communities in need. Donations will support its arts and education programs for students, after school programs and its help center for women. Make checks payable to Bloc Ministries, 3952 North Bend Road, Cincinnati 45211, and put 'Lower Price Hill' on the memo line. For information, contact Dwight Young, director, at 513-325-5635.

Oyler School is always looking for tutors. They have more than 400 volunteers doing one-on-one tutoring each week.Interested? Call 513-363-4100.