Girl Scouts of Orange County host Trefoil Trot 5K walk and festival for organization’s 111th anniversary

Girl Scouts of Orange County invite scouts and non-scouts alike to celebrate ahead of their 111th anniversary with a 5K walk and festival at Wild Rivers in Irvine Sunday.

The first Trefoil Trot starts at 7:30 a.m., and kids who take part earn a medal and a T-shirt. Those who’d like to participate but haven’t yet registered should arrive early. They’ll be able to accommodate about 1,200 people, and 600 had signed up as of Friday.

A shorter walk the Girl Scouts are calling the “Daisy Dash” will also be held for younger kids and toddlers.

Those who skip the Sunday morning jog are still welcome to a festival titled “Camp Cooldown,” which runs from 9 a.m. to noon. The theme of its attractions are the “four pillars” of the Girl Scouts: entrepreneurship, life skills, S.T.E.M. and the outdoors, Girl Scouts of Orange County Chief Executive Vikki Shepp said.

Eventgoers will get a chance to create Lego race cars, lanyards and binary code bracelets. Booths will also feature ax throwing, face painting, gardening and music.

There will be plenty of cookies on sale, and this may be one of the last chances people get to stock up on the ever-popular Thin Mints, Caramel DeLites, Peanut Butter Patties and other varieties of the iconic sweets. Girl Scout Cookie season closes at the end of the coming week.

The Trefoil Trot is an opportunity for kids and their families who might want to join the Girl Scouts to learn more about them. Shepp hopes the event also attracts supporters from the business community who might consider sponsoring the organization.

“We started to toss around this idea of what can we do where the public could see that we’re more than cookies because we know that’s our reputation, which we don’t mind, but we’d like people to know more than that,” Shepp said.

The last day of cookie sales, March 12, also marks the 110th anniversary of the Girl Scouts. For generations, they have made it their mission to enrich girls’ lives and prepare to lead them to brighter futures. Research has shown that kids who join the group are more likely to graduate from college and become civically engaged as adults, Shepp said.

The Girl Scouts were founded in Savannah, Ga. by Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low in 1912, and began with a troop of just 18 girls. Today, the organization boasts around 1.7 million members.

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