Group Gets a Taste of Media Life

The Carver Center Girl Scout Troop #296 has experienced life in front of the camera and behind the mike while touring a TV and radio station.

The group, located in Atlantic Beach, FL also recently fed meals to the homeless to add to their impressive list of experiences which include creating their own newspaper, working with teenage volunteers, performing at last year's annual World of Nations International Festival in Jacksonville, creating artwork for sale, and visiting various amusement parks among other activities. The troop also made cards and delivered them to the children at Wolfson Children's Hospital and visited the Florida Times-Union newspaper.

95.1 Radio and WJXT TV-4 taught the girls about all kinds of communication. (Source: Cindy Persico).

The radio station tour included visiting different parts of the facility which involved learning about how to change your voice on the air.

"On the ride to the TV station I thought the place would be small and only have one room where the news is taped and I thought it would recorded and then played the next day but I learned by watching Stacie, a reporter, that the news is live and it takes a lot of work, too," said a scout. "People are there 24 hours a day. There's always someone there either researching, reporting, or recording and they work late and early hours to the extreme."

Troop leader Cindy Persico arranged for the girls to be able to sit in the room where the news is broadcast live and watch an anchor on the air. The troop also got to see the weather man. At the end of the broadcast they showed the girls on the news and introduced the name of the troop as they waved to the camera along with Persico. On their way out the group got a Channel 4 pen and magnet. At the news station the girls also got a tour and the guide told them how traffic updates were done with cameras in the light poles that film for 24 hours.

"Going to a news station isn't boring after all," said Scout Jenna Norris.

"We had a fun field trip," said Scout Alexis. "It was a learning experience."

Some of their other trip stories entailed going to Busch Gardens in Tampa, which one scout said was "the best field trip ever."

"Our group saw animals we had seen and some we had never seen before," said another scout. "I got to spend time with my friends, take pictures, and buy some beautiful things from the stores."

Animals spotted included turtles, fish, monkeys, birds, alligators, flamingoes, ducks, and elephants, the latter of which one scout named Shamara described as "smelly." A scout named Adiyah said she never had as much fun as she did on the trip.

"I loved the show that we watched while we ate lunch," she enthused. "When the car came at the end of the day to go home I was tired and ready to go to sleep."