Beckley Girl Scouts collected over 100 dolls last year for the 78th annual Mac’s Toy Fund, and they are back at it in 2009 with a goal of 500 books.

“We are a small troop, but we’re very community-minded,” said Kelli White, leader of Greater Beckley Christian Academy’s Girl Scout Troop No. 5399.

“Out of all the community service projects we did in 2008, Mac’s Toy Fund was the one the kids seemed to take away the most from. In today’s society, a lot of children are not getting involved in community service and giving their time to help others.”

White said the good thing about Girl Scouts is it helps instill that at a very early age.

“Each year, the girls decide on a service project,” the group leader explained, “and because they didn’t see many last year, they decided they wanted to donate books.”

The troop, which consists of one Brownie and six Juniors, made the decision and started planning as early as September.

“They’re small, but they pack a lot in,” White said. “The group is girl-led and girl-driven, meaning leaders provide guidance, but as far as choosing community services and any other things like that, they do.”

She added that while the troop’s home base school is Greater Beckley, they do have kids from other schools.

“They were required to think of ways to get the word out, so they made posters to take to their individual schools and came up with other ideas, like putting it in their church bulletin,” she said. “They were gung-ho about it.”

“They are trying to get at least 500 books, because they want each child to walk away with a book and think that’s important.”

White, who also serves on the Raleigh County Service Unit team, said the project is based on a premise of “Discover, Connect and Take Action.”

“The ‘Discover’ aspect was remembering what they did last year and thinking of how it affected them, what they saw, what they didn’t see and what they took away from it,” she continued.

“The ‘Connect’ was all the input they gave deciding what they wanted to do this year, including taking votes and choosing books.”

Finally, White said the girls will “Take Action” when they actually work the Mac’s Toy Fund part just before Christmas at the Beckley-Raleigh County Convention Center.

“They are each assigned a family and will go through the lines at the toy fund, helping the kids choose items,” said White.

“It’s a really good experience for the troop to see others who are struggling and come together to help those families.”

Books can be dropped of at Greater Beckley Christian Academy, the Workforce building or White says she will be more than happy to come pick them up.

For more information or to donate books, call 304-673-1539.

Monetary donations for the toy fund will be accepted through the end of the year; mail them to Mac’s Toy Fund, P.O. Box 2398, Beckley, WV 25802.

— E-mail: cclark@register-herald.com