Friday, Sept. 19, 2003 | 9 a.m.
Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at [email protected] or (702) 259-4082.
In a room where hardly an inch of space is unused or vacant, the chair tucked away in the corner of Patricia Miller's office seems almost defiant.
A sign taped to its blue plastic cover says, "Do not use. For new building."
A new, $6.2 million building where Girl Scouts Frontier Council employees won't be working four to a computer. Everyone will have their own terminal, desk and, yes, new chair.
"This is the largest capital improvement project we've ever undertaken," Miller said.
And the toughest.
"Everyone is competing for the same dollars out there," she said.
Girl Scouts of the USA turned 91 this year, and the Frontier Council that serves nearly half of Nevada and a small portion of Southern California turned 51.
At least 9,000 girls ages 5 to 17 are members of its troops -- a number expected to top 11,000 next year, Miller said. The current 6,000-square-foot headquarters at Harris and Eastern avenues is pieced together from manufactured buildings. It doesn't begin to serve their needs.
Miller held up a photograph of camp-staging day this past summer. Scouts and parents who weren't standing under sign-up tents were lined up along the edges of the modular building, seeking refuge from the fierce desert sun in about 10 inches of shade the portables offered.
"We have to do that on the asphalt, and in summer it is just unbearable," Miller said.
Huge piles of dirt just beyond the current building show next year's campers will sign up in a new building with air conditioning. The 19,820-square-foot facility will have plenty of office and storage space, along with volunteer and troop activity rooms.
Outside, the grounds will include a training area and actual bridges, which are integral to the ceremonies for girls as they graduate to the next level of scouting.
The lion's share of the building costs is covered by a $4.2 million grant from the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation.
The Girl Scout council had to raise the other $2 million. It is scraping together the last $500,000 -- a task that is proving tougher as the days pass.
"(The foundation grant) put us pretty much over the hump, but we have a long way to go," Juergen Barbusca, council public relations director, said. "It's like running a marathon and being at mile 22."
"You hit the wall," Miller added.
They came up with the idea of selling engraved Daisy petals. "Daisy" was the nickname of Girl Scouts founder Juliette Gordon Lowe, and also is the name given to the organization's youngest troops.
Petals can be inscribed to honor a family member or friend. Sizes range from a 4-inch petal for a $250 donation to an entire daisy for a donation of $10,000 or more.
When the work seems tedious, Miller can look to her Scouts for inspiration. Earlier this year, a 15-year-old Las Vegas Scout earned the group's top honor for collecting thousands of books to start a literacy program and library in Belize.
"That's what we're about -- developing that kind of girl," Miller said. "We're not just chit-chat. It really is life-changing. There is just no other way to say it."
For information, call 385-3677 or log onto frontiercouncil.org.
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