Happy Father's Day!

This Sunday, we will take the time to honor and celebrate the fathers and father figures who help us build girls of courage, confidence and character who make the world a better place.

Darrell Fann is one of those dads.

He has been a proud Girl Scout volunteer for six years. What first started as getting a troop together to ensure his daughters had the Girl Scout Experience has turned into years of troop leading and outdoor adventures.

“A big part of Girl Scouts is that it is girl-led. While having a strong female role model is very important, I also believe it is as important to have male role models,” Darrell explained.

Being the go-getter Girl Scout dad that he is, Darrell started his time as a volunteer by becoming the co-leader of his daughters’ Girl Scout troop to help get the troop up and running since there wasn’t one available at the time. He has since become the troop leader with help from his co-leader and troop parents.

Shortly after the troop’s first  Service Unit Encampment, Darrell learned that a lot of work went into participating in outdoor activities. He then took all of the outdoor training classes that he could so the girls in the troop could experience outdoor adventures. After two years of training and leading weekend events, he started to add different activities to the troop’s agenda such as canoeing.

Since his first two years as a Girl Scout, he has continued to look for ways to help his troop progress. So, when Darrell was able to volunteer with The Wild Things to get insight into some more weekend adventures for the older Girl Scouts, he didn’t hesitate to be a part of the group!

Aside from outdoor activities, Darrell has also trained adults for over four years and led his service unit camp activities for the past three years. Darrell has even dedicated his time to serve as a volunteer for different council programs such as STEM at Nauticus and Core Camp. He now helps plan, organize and execute adventures for Girl Scouts to explore the excitement of the outdoors in activities like bike camping and backpacking.

For him, the most rewarding part of his Girl Scout Volunteer experience has been the transformation that he has seen in his daughters. He has seen them grow as leaders and become more active and comfortable with leading and planning group activities.

As an adult volunteer, Darrell believes that there are very valuable lessons that can be learned by being a Girl Scout.

“The experiences and lessons learned from Girl Scouts help teach both personal responsibility and leadership, as well as support for your troop members, the broader Girl Scout impact and supporting your local community.”

Darrell’s hard work earned him the Honor Pin in 2015 for his time training adults for outdoor activities and the Thanks Badge in 2017 for his continuing efforts in outdoor training and co-leading The Wild Things events.

Thank you, Darrell, for your continued dedication to the Girl Scout Mission, and thank you to all of our dads man enough to be a Girl Scout! We appreciate you.

Happy Father’s Day!