100th Anniversary - Guest Blog: Bruner

We're recognizing Suzie Bruner as this week's guest blogger.  Suzie is among our valued Girl Scout leaders from Council Bluffs.

Are you interested in being our next guest blogger?  If so, please email us! 

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Suzie Bruner (2nd from left) with friends, daughter,
and staff at the Girl Scout Annual Meeting.

Hello, my name is Suzie Bruner.  You might say Scouting is in my blood.  My parents were Den Masters and Leaders for Boy Scouts.  My Mother was the helper in my Girl Scout Troop.  Our Troop would meet once a week right after school.  Our leader, Mrs. Jones, had her hands full.  At that time we didn’t have many Leader’s in my area and she ended up being the Leader for all the girls in my school class.  I think there were about 30 of us.  We would leave school on Tuesdays, all of us walking to her house where we held our meetings.  She would move all the furniture in her house to the side walls and put up tables where we would sit and do crafts, and work in our Girl Scouts Brownie Books.  We wore the Girl Scout uniform which consisted of the Brownie dress, tie and beanie.  The tie was a real tie and we had to learn how to tie it correctly.  You might say this was my first lesson in knots.  Whenever one of the Girl’s in our Troop had a Birthday we wore our uniform to school that day.  Our way of saying Happy Birthday to a fellow Girl Scouts.  With so many of us in our Troop we wore our uniforms often.  When it was time to Bridge to Juniors Mrs. Jones had decided to step down from Girl Scouts.  This left all of us without a leader.  Both my parents were already involved in Boy Scouting and working.  This left me no choice, but to end my Girl Scouting days as a Girl.

Later in life I had boys.  I would help with Boy Scouts, but never really got that involved.  We moved from Council Bluffs and I lost touch with Scouting.  Then came my daughter.  She joined as a Daisy.  She had a wonderful Leader and Co Leader.  She was getting the full experience of be a Girl Scouts.  I would go help out occasionally but didn’t feel the need to get involved.  Then our family was moving again.  This time we moved back to my home town of Council Bluffs.  When we went to register for Girl Scouts it was almost summer and time for Camp.  My daughter was not excited to go to camp without friends, but with some encouragement off she went.  This was not a very good experience and she was going to quit.  Then I remembered the great experiences I had with my parents as Leader’s and friends that I had due to Girl Scouts.  So I decided I was going to be her Leader.  I went to my training and thought boy this is a lot of responsibility.  I don’t know if I can live up to the Girl Scouts expectations.  With lots of encouragement and help from the staff I started my Troop.  We had the typical trials and errors of Girl Scouts the first year.  Then it all seemed to fall in place.  I had a troop of girls that wanted to be Girl Scouts.   I was getting as much out of Girl Scouts as they were. 

Then came the big question?  Would I be willing to be Service Manager for Service Unit 406?  I didn’t think this was something that I was qualified for.  But again with some encouragement I became the Service Unit Chair.  With this came more responsibility. My family began to think I was living and breathing Girl Scouts.  In a way I was.  So I decided to ask for help.  I began by asking others that didn’t know me.  This gave us a bigger range of ideas to work from.  From there, not only have I got to work with the girls, I have gained some of the best friends I could ask for.   During my years as a Leader and Service Unit Manager I think the most important thing I have gained out of Girl Scouts is friendship. 

Like they say, once a Girl Scout always a Girl Scout.

- Suzie Bruner

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