This is another in a weekly series on local agencies that receive funding from the United Way — editor.

LUMBERTON — Girl Scouts has been a part of Janice Sutton’s life for 28 years: She was a scout from second grade until her senior year of high school, and now she is a leader for Troop 588.

“Scouts makes you who you are,” she said. “The adventures and different things I’ve gotten to go and do — 90 percent of the things I’ve gotten to do in life was because of Girl Scouts.”

More than 1,000 girls in Robeson County participate Girl Scouts. Nationally, 50 million American women have passed through the organization whose mission is to “build girls’ character, courage, and confidence in accepting and nurturing environments,” the Girl Scouts of the USA Web site says. They say girls in scouting learn about leadership, strong values, social conscience, and conviction of their own self-worth.

“I hope to continue to do Girl Scouts until college, and then I plan on being a Girl Scout troop leader,” said Alex Lowery, 13, of Troop 588. “I want to work with animals. I’m not sure what I want to be right now, but I know what I want to do with Girl Scouts — it’s just so rewarding.”

Kammela Brayboy, director of the local chapter, North Carolina Coastal Pines, said in an e-mail that Girl Scouts strives to “instill in girls the leadership skills that will serve them throughout life.”

She offered Troop 588, based in St. Pauls, as an example: Four girls have earned Bronze Awards by committing 15 hours to community service projects, and now they are working on their Silvers, which require 40 hours of service. The Bronze and Silver Awards are steps to earning the Gold Award, which is the highest honor in Girl Scouts.

“They get to be unique and build a confidence and character in themselves that you’re not going to get in the classroom, you’re not going to get in the home,” Sutton said.

Juliette Gordon Low founded the Girl Scouts with 18 girls in Savannah, Ga., on March 12, 1912, amid the greater national movement for gender equality. Low sought to bring “girls out of isolated home environments and into community service and the open air,” according to the Girl Scouts Web site.

“Girl Scouts means responsibility and self-respect,” said Mari Jane Sutton, 12, of Troop 588. She is Janice Sutton’s daughter. “Activities we do in the books help us learn how the little things in life make you responsible and respectable, and every project we do does too.”

Last October, Troop 588 hosted the first Robeson County Juliette Low Carnival at the Parkton Armory. More than 30 people played games, won door prizes, and enjoyed refreshments. The girls have tentative plans to hold the carnival again this year.

By the time women won suffrage in 1920, there were 70,000 Girl Scouts nationwide. Through the decades, Girl Scouts were leaders in social movements and female advancement. The organization was one of the first to integrate, to issue handbooks in a range of languages — including Spanish, Yiddish, and Japanese — and to push girls to learn about math and science.

Troop 588 cadet Jasmine Bazinet, 13, said one of her favorite patches is Computers in Everyday Life. “We got to go to IBM in Raleigh and they taught us what the inside of a computer looks like. That’s the one I’m really proud about. I got to interact with all the women who work at IBM.”

Bazinet also enjoyed Career Day, when the girls met professional women who work as engineers, veterinarians, police officers, and photographers.

“Career Day lets us girls see all of the different jobs that women can do,” she said. “For some girls, when they enter high school they just quit Girl Scouts like maybe there are other things they want to do, like sports. For me, I would never quit because you can get your gold and put that toward college and on job applications.”

Girl Scouts strives to expand girls’ world views with camps and trips. For the past two years, Sutton has taken girls to Washington, D.C.

“There are a lot of different Girl Scout outings, allowing them to travel and explore new things that they may not be able to just with their families or schools,” Sutton said.

“When they explored the Vietnam Wall with all the names of the people who died in the war, they could see the idea of the wall,” she said. “It was just great to see them actually experience things that may seem simple and minute in a text book.”

Lowery said she likes diversity in Girl Scouts.

“I meet other girls who are my age and like the same things as me, and I meet people in different ages, races, and backgrounds. Girl Scouts has impacted the community by showing that everybody of all races can work together and be friends. The differences we do have are good.”

Mari Jane, an aspiring actress, likes the opportunities for culture; her favorite patches are for dance and art.

“We got to go see ‘The Nutcracker’ several times and for the art we got to do arts and crafts and do origami. That was fun because it was something nobody’s done before.”

According to the Girl Scout Web site, more than 3.4 million girls and women — ages 5 to 17 and adult alumni — nationwide are members. Worldwide, there are 236,000 Girl Scout troops in 90 countries.

The chapter that encompasses Robeson County was a result of a merger between two chapters, and now serves 32,000 girls and almost 10,000 women in 41 counties in central and eastern North Carolina. It is funded by personal, corporate, and foundation donations, cookie sales, and 30 local United Ways; last year Robeson County’s United Way was a “gold” sponsor, donating more than $20,000 to the local chapter.

Brayboy said troops in Robeson County help with local events to donate toys and supplies to local organizations.

“Here in Robeson County, we sponsored some local events such as Bowling for Tots, and the girls raised over 100 new toys and donated them to the Family Violence Center,” she said in an e-mail.

Lowery is going to work at a pet haven for her Silver project. “I love animals, and if they have problems, they can’t do anything about it,” Lowery said.

Last year for her Bronze project — her favorite so far — Lowery collected school supplies for poor children in Robeson County.

“Some people in my school have parents who can’t even afford book bags,” Lowery said. “You wouldn’t believe it when some of the kids just loved having book bags and crayons and colored pencils. It was just the best gift for them.”

Bazinet is planning to work in a soup kitchen and help restock the food pantry for her Silver project, and Mari Jane will make homeless survival bags for the homeless, which will be backpacks full of granola bars, soap, and other items.

“I like helping others in the community and bringing others into Girl Scouts with me, and then helping them help others too,” Mari Jane said. “I hope that I can encourage other girls to do Girl Scouts too, because they’re missing out on a lot.”

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For more information on joining or starting a Girl Scout troop in Robeson County, call (910) 739-0744.

The Girl Scout Law: “I will do my best to be honest and fair, friendly and helpful, considerate and caring, courageous and strong, and responsible for what I say and do, and to respect myself and others, respect authority, use resources wisely, make the world a better place, and be a sister to every Girl Scout.”

There are more than...

— 1,000 Robeson County Girl Scouts.

— 32,000 girls in the Coastal Pines chapter.

— 3.4 million Girl Scout members nationwide.

— 236,000 Girl Scout troops in 90 countries.