Lifelong friends, world experiences: Local Girl Scout leader looks back on 11 years

When Michelle Le signed up her second grade daughter for Girl Scouts, she hoped the organization would help her young daughter find a group of lifelong friends.

Eleven years later, Le, who has been leader of her daughter's troop since the beginning, says she and her daughter have found close friends, but they've gotten so much more out of the experience.

As Le wraps up her final year as leader, she shares more about the experience that's taken her troop around the world. Le lives in Cary, has two children and also works as senior manager of business operations at Cisco Systems. See my Q&A with her below.

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All of my girls are very different. They have different interests, personalities, religious and ethnic backgrounds, yet they love each other unconditionally. That kind of bond comes from the shared experiences and lessons they have learned through the Girl Scout program and their leaders.

With that in mind, we sought out opportunities to do just that. The girls set goals focused on travel that included trips to Savannah, Earthshine Mountain Lodge, several other east coast U.S. destinations, New York City and Europe. Each trip offered a unique perspective that would expand their understanding of people and the challenges that we all face.

When we were in New York City, we saw amazing things from the Statue of Liberty to Cinderella on Broadway, but my favorite memory was the time that we spent in the 9/11 Memorial and Museum. All of my girls were only one or two years old when 9/11 happened. They have learned about it in school and heard stories of the impact, but being immersed in the memories in the museum brought it to life in a new way for them.

There were many tears and a new appreciation for the amazing way that our country came together following 9/11. I will never forget that day and the new awareness and maturity I saw in their eyes as we left that scene. They were spurned into action and gained a passion for helping others effected by tragedy. Later that year. they were honored to perform the flag ceremony on 9/11 at our local Girl Scout Leader kick off meeting. They performed a moving ceremony and recited a poem in honor of those lost and those that remained to mourn.

For any parent considering signing up their daughter for Girl Scouts, I would also encourage them to explore becoming a leader. Being my daughter's leader allowed us to have a new and different kind of relationship - one where she was able to see me as a leader, an example of how to be a strong female leader. She saw me love other people unconditionally, saw my example of how to be intentional in relationships, saw how I valued other people who were different than me. It has been a wonderful way for me to connect with my daughter in a new and different way than I would have otherwise had available to me.