Bridge to Asia -- National Geographic Drives

The Eastside Journal (Seattle, Washington, U.S.A)

Brownie troop exceeds expectations

Rooms overflow from book, magazine drive

by Marc Siegel
Journal Reporter

Click here to see full black and white photo (95 K)

BELLEVUE-- The parents of Brownie Girl Scouts of Troop No. 1060 thought there was no way eight little girls could collect 5,000 magazines and books.

In a way, they were right, and troop leader Mary Kent could not be happier.

"After the first weekend we were over 5,000," said Kent, with a wide grin. "We said, well, that's easy."

Since that first weekend in Feburary, the month-long drive, which focused on National Geographic, has collected more than 30,000 magazines and books to be sent to Asian countries.

It's also created logistical problems for the troop.

"It was overwhelming," said Donnedda Moore, mom to troop member Kelsey, who offered their family's Bellevue home as the campaign's warehouse.

"We had expected 5,000 magazines in one corner of the room and that was filled the first day. Then the magazines just kept coming and coming."

She said trucks and vans loaded with magazines arrived every Saturday and Sunday until the house was overflowing.

"They were in every corner of the house. The entire dining room we had to stack full three times."

The girls' asked local businesses and churches to set up collection boxes. Their campaign was also promoted in newspapers and on KRWM radio.

"We were literally getting 50 to 100 calls a day when the ad on the radio was on," Kent said.

Brownies went with their parents all over the Eastside and Seattle picking up donated magazines at people's homes. When that became to much, they restricted their pickups to 15 drop-off sites.

"At some points it was hard and tiring, and at other points it was fun," said 9-year-old Margaret Davie, a third-grader at St. Louise Catholic Church in Bellevue, where all the Brownies go to school.

Their work ends today.

They will finish packing a 20-foot-long shipping container that was dropped off Friday morning and will be carted to the Port of Seattle tomorrow morning.

The container will be full when it leaves prot sometime this week for Beijing, China.

Bridge to Asia, a nonprofit group that distributes materials to Asian countries, is paying the shipping costs. The agency told Kent her troop's collection is the organization's largest ever.

Kent said she thought of the drive in January when she read about the San Francisco-based organization in a National Geographic magazine.

"These countries that don't have access to our reading materials can learn," she said.

"I'm so proud of the Girl Scouts," she said. "To collect this many for eight little girls is incredible."

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