Girl Scout Troop 41003 in Harvard has had an outstanding run. Despite distractions, competing opportunities, and a pandemic, many members have been together through levels from Brownie to Ambassador. Eight of them just graduated in the Bromfield Class of 2025, with distinction and college plans and wearing honorary green-and-white tasseled cords over their robes. Mary Arata was the troop’s first leader, with her daughter Meaghan the first Daisy. In a recent conversation, Arata said the priority of the troop has been community service, and “the girls built memories together as they moved the needle in their community.”
In 2011 when the troop was looking for a leader, Arata volunteered, inspired in part by her own experience as a Scout. Mrs. Fotino was a troop leader in Reading, where Arata grew up, and even as a mom of six kids, she kept the troop together. Arata, with two children, figured if Mrs. Fotino could do it, so could she. Meaghan had no choice but to show up at every meeting then. Taking material for activities out of the closet at the Congregational Church and later putting everything away was the “plight of the leader’s kid.” It was also Meaghan’s role to “be the bridge” for every new girl coming into the troop.
The Harvard Girl Scout Troop 41003 at the Bromfield School graduation on Saturday, June 7, 2025. Back row, from left: Lucy Feltz, Robyn Douglas, Sigrid Dahlstrom, Shehla Rahman, Savannah Senykoff, Amanda Smith, Meaghan Arata, and Caroline Ells. Front row, from left: co-leaders Katy O’Leary, Mary Arata, and Holly Senykoff. (Courtesy photos)
Arata recalled that first year. She was the sole leader (the rules now require co-leaders for every troop). Every week, in any weather, she would march the pre-K Daisies from Hildreth Elementary to the church. Everything was an adventure for them—and exhaustion for Arata, with everything else she had going on. She stepped down after a year, but helped Eve Douglas, the new leader, whose daughter, Robyn, became a longtime member of the troop. Arata returned as leader when the girls were in first grade. Starting when the girls were Brownies, Arata was joined by co-leaders Katy O’Leary and Holly Senykoff, and their daughters, Lucy Feltz and Savannah Senykoff, who had been Scouts elsewhere, became part of the troop. The three have co-led the troop since then.
The then Daisy Scouts at Camp Green Eyrie in 2013. Front row, from left: Caroline Justicz, Joycelyn Pine, and Meaghan Arata. Second row, from left: Sigrid Dahlstrom, Nadia Little, and Alexandra Becker. In back: Robyn Douglas (left) and leader Eve Douglas.
Virginia Justicz did a lot of cooking with the troop; her daughter Caroline, now a Bromfield senior, has remained active in 41003. Arata always hoped the girls could have more camping experience, learning survival skills like fire lighting and knife handling, but there was never much support for that. She said she so admires Harvard Boy Scout leader Gary Madison and the challenging adventures he gives his troop. The one camping experience the girls did have was interrupted by quite a surprise. Camped in the backyard of the Justicz family, the girls were awakened at 2 a.m. when the automatic sprinkler system turned on.
Focus on community service
Early on, Arata made the decision to buck tradition and make the troop’s mission community service rather than earning awards. To do the latter, a troop has to follow a curriculum set by the national organization. Arata wanted to give the girls a variety of experiences; she could see that even as young kids, they grew bored of doing just arts and crafts. Arata believed in the “try-it approach.” If the girls failed at something, they still had fun along the way. As Holly Senykoff wrote in an email: “Girl Scouts has evolved into something bigger than just earning badges and selling cookies.”
An early service project when the girls were in grade school was creating the Donation Station. Arata’s husband built a wooden rack, and parents were encouraged to donate used winter clothing. The intent was to provide outer clothing for students at HES who were living at Transitions in Devens, a temporary shelter for moms and kids. But any child could take—and keep—an item they needed. Later, the girls taught arts and crafts to kids at Transitions, and they assembled buckets of cleaning supplies for the moms. Other projects were stocking shelves at Loaves & Fishes, filling bags for school kids at Kyle’s Kare Kits, and volunteering at a men’s shelter in Worcester.
Perhaps the most life-changing service was last summer when five girls and their moms spent a week at a Lakota reservation in South Dakota, doing projects that improved daily living for the residents and learning about their culture. Robyn Douglas said of the experience, “It was eye-opening and put our privileged lives into perspective.”
After years of spending the Earth Day cleanup on obscure roads in town, the Scouts wanted to make more of a statement. Recently they have worked on Ayer Road from Route 2 to the Ayer Circle and stacked their yellow bags at the post office.
Building bonds
The most consistent of their community service has been the troop’s contributions to the Harvard Senior Center, at both its old and new locations. From cute little kids passing cookies at a holiday tea to young women delivering meals on special occasions, members of Troop 41003 have played an important part in seniors’ lives. And the girls have experienced the loss of some of them. They have put up a Christmas tree every year, written cards to seniors during the COVID years, and helped with the gardens at the center on Lancaster County Road. Arata said COA Director Debbie Thompson has been very supportive and grateful to the girls, and they in turn have learned a lot.
The leaders of Troop 41003 are very proud that they got the girls up to the rank of Ambassador. Arata said girls, more than boys, fall out of Scouting, and she sees the differences in structure as part of the cause. Boy Scout troops tend to do things together, and the older boys inspire the younger. Camping provides bonding experiences and provides real challenges. The Girl Scout organization—Harvard is part of the Girl Scouts of Central and Eastern Massachusetts—is more age defined. Also, Arata said, it’s hard to get leaders, to get moms to “mom” other kids, whereas for dads, Scout leadership may offer different opportunities.
There have been as many as three dozen members over the years, said Arata, and she believes even those who left, will remember the experience. “We built memories together, with a focus on community service.” We always had the best girls, she said. They generate ideas among themselves; they see a problem and they figure out how to solve it. In an email, Senykoff said being a leader to a group of amazing young women has been a complete honor. “The girls have built a bond with each other that they will forever have, and we leaders will have that bond with them as well.” O’Leary reflected, “I didn’t know what to expect, but being a leader was a great experience. I got to watch the girls grow together and change from rowdy kids who couldn’t sit still and focus, to very successful and involved young adults.”
Arata gave a shoutout to Janice Kennedy, a pediatric physician—with a lot of girls of her own—who generously gave her time to the Scout organization for years and years. “She did so much with so little.” And while not in any official capacity, she’s remained involved. She provides a model which Arata, stepping down from troop leader, hopes to follow—still helping out.
