A New Home
By Reusser, Kayleen
When visitors walk into the Mary Jane McMillen, Crowe Leadership and Learning Center, the new headquarters for Girl Scouts of Limberlost Council, their mouths sometimes drop open. Sherri Weidman, CEO of the Girl Scouts of Limberlost Council, has witnessed many astonished visitors since she and 28 employees moved into the new 18,000-square-foot building in October 2006.
“Girls rarely went into the old building because it was too small to accommodate programs,” says Weidman. “But when they come into this space, we hear them say, ‘This is beautiful.’ “
The decor is bright and cheery. Famous quotes on the interior walls of the learning center focus on leadership and learning. Understanding girls’ ideas and needs fueled the organization’s decision to relocate to a new regionally accessible building on the north side of Fort Wayne.
“We have experienced steady growth in membership over a period of ten years,” says Weidman. “We needed to establish a place that would better serve our needs.”
Girl Scouts of Limberlost Council serves six counties in northeast Indiana: Adams, Allen, DeKalb, Huntington, Steuben and Wells. Among those six counties, it serves 10,005 members between the ages of 5-17, 683 troops, and 2,200 adult volunteers.
The new headquarters is in the geographic center of the six- county jurisdiction of the Council and is easily accessible from I- 69 and I-469.
“We reach approximately one out of every five girls in our area,” says Weidman. “The national average is one out of every nine girls.” She adds that the Council is known as one of the top in the country.
Girl Scouts was founded in 1912, and the first Girl Scouts was organized in Fort Wayne in 1918. Limberlost Council received its charter in 1959.
The organization’s former administrative offices and retail store had been located at 2135 Spy Run Avenue since 1984. While the building was designed for 12 employees of a previous business, the Girl Scouts had 28 employees working there.
“There was no room for programming or the training of adult volunteers, which is a massive part of what we do,” says Weidman.
The Girl Scout cookie program posed another problem. “Cookie storage had to be handled off-site,” says Weidman. “Every year it was a challenge finding a location to store them.”
When the decision was made to look for land around Fort Wayne on which they could build, a fund-raising feasibility study was conducted. Based on the study’s findings, Weidman says the board approved a $4.25 million budget to purchase land and construct the new headquarters at Camp Logan, a facility near Syracuse owned by Limberlost Council.
“The dining hall located at Ca Logan was built in the late 1920s as a temporary facility,” says Weidman. “It was too small for our needs and didn’t have an area for weather safety.”
Weidman says the new Leadership and Learning Center, which came in on budget, has two floors and a volunteer resource room with materials to help with programs. The Council’s retail store, Patches & Smore, carries uniforms, badges, patches, insignia, camping equipment and T-shirts.
“Everyone has an image of what the Girl Scouts organization does,” says Weidman. “They are often surprised by our full scope. We are continuing to grow because our contemporary programs are in demand. Girls need programs like Girl Scouts to navigate the challenges of growing up in today’s world.”
For your information…
Girl Scouts of Limberlost Council
Address:
10008 Dupont Circle Drive East
Fort Wayne, IN 46825
Phone: 260.422-3417 and 800.283.4812
Website: www.girlscout-limberlost.org
CEO: Sherri Weidman
Board Chair: Patty Weddle
Office Hous: 8am – 5pm
Established in: 1918
Nature of the business: A non-profit youth development agency whose mission is to build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place.
Copyright Michiana Business Publications, Inc. Jun 01, 2007
(c) 2007 Business People. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.