BELLAIRE • MEMORIAL • RIVER OAKS • TANGLEWOOD • WEST UNIVERSITY

Mommy Moments: There’s a New Troop in Town

By Annie Blaylock McQueen, Staff writer | February 15, 2016

Click the Buzz Me button to receive email notifications when this writer publishes a new article or a new article in this column is published.

Bennett Bowman, Penelope Gustafson, Ivy Frankel

(From left) Bennett Bowman with friends Penelope Gustafson and Ivy Frankel.

Editor’s Note: Each week, Annie Blaylock McQueen, who has twin babies, writes on timely parenting topics and share parenting stories. For more baby stories and topic, check out Annie’s monthly Buzz Baby column. If you have baby stories to share, comment under this article or email us at [email protected].

When 8-year-old Bennett Bowman, a third grader at The Kinkaid School, asked her mom Joanie Kirksey if she could join a Brownie troop, there was only one problem. There wasn’t a troop for her age at her school.

Bennett’s little sister Lindley Bowman was a “Daisy” at St. Francis Episcopal Day School and Bennett watched her have so much fun. So, last November, Joanie got the ball rolling on starting a troop with the help of other Kinkaid moms Francine Bailard, Lucie White, Kristina Frankel, Nikki Pielop and Girl Scout representative Tracy Simmons.

Pictured (from left) are third graders Molly Dinerstein, Chloe Bailard, Maddy Billipp, Lilly Lucas, Chloe Childress, Libby Liuzzi, Isabel Huddle, (middle row, from left) Kelly Kronfeld (instructor), Katie Reese McCartney, Anna Consoli, Elizabeth Ajumobi, Caroline Nelson, (back row, from left) Joanie Crosswell, Mary Papandreou, Allison Whitman, Ava Johnson, Carolyn Colter, Caroline Pielop, Ivy Frankel, Emmy Heath, Daphne Murray, Haylie George, Gayle Robertson, Penelope Gustafson, Annie Villa, Poppy Chapoton and Ginny Filippone. Also there were Bennett Bowman, Natalie Harvin, Kate Hyman and Caroline Raynes.

“The girls had a blast selling cookies and delivering in December and January, [and] participated in philanthropic work making hygiene kits for the homeless. They had a painting and skating party and have various field trips in place,” said Joanie.

The troop members recently earned their painting patches for their brown sashes and had a ball at a painting party. The girls painted and watched an art demonstration, led by painting expert Kelly Kronfeld with Art & Kustom Kreations.

Read more Mommy Moments posts.