JOSH DAVIS/BAYSIDE GAZETTE
Local Girl Scouts last week donate cancer care items to the new John H. “Jack” Burbage Jr. Regional Cancer Care Center in Berlin.

By Josh Davis, Associate Editor

(Nov. 29, 2018) Local Girl Scouts from Troop 736 continued their charitable efforts last week, as they presented cancer care items to the staff at the new John H. “Jack” Burbage Jr. Regional Cancer Care Center in Berlin.

In September, Troop 736 presented 100 cancer care kits to staff at the Richard A. Henson Cancer Center in Ocean Pines as part of their pursuit of the Bronze Award, the highest honor given to Junior Girl Scouts.

Last Wednesday, the girls brought additional care kits with ginger tea and ginger candies, toothbrushes and toothpaste, and tissues and other toiletries to the Berlin center. Also included were handmade “Hats for Hope” made from LuLaRoe leggings, and the Scouts put together a small coloring book station and made paper roses colored purple to denote cancer awareness.

“It’s just a nice little bouquet for them to look at and to remind them that nobody fights alone,” Troop Advisor Colleen Dillon-Rutzler said.

Each of the girls in Troop 736 have been affected in some way by cancer and Dillon-Rutzler, in a previous interview, said she was an acute myeloid leukemia survivor and her sister succumbed to metastatic breast cancer after a 14-year battle.

The Scouts were assisted by community donations, with several local businesses agreeing to act as drop-off sites for items included in the care kits.

Dillon-Rutzler said the original plan was to donate items to both centers, but there was difficulty getting in touch with the Regional Cancer Care Center in Berlin, which officially opened in July.

“Since they were so new here, we weren’t able to connect originally, back when we were trying to get ready for the Bronze Award,” she said. “But, we thought when we had some extra things that we would definitely go ahead and say, ‘welcome to the neighborhood.’

“We thought we would come right around Thanksgiving time because, obviously, cancer doesn’t take a break,” she continued. “People are getting diagnosed every day and every hour, so we thought we would stop by and … drop off some fun things for them.”

Dillon-Rutzler said the girls recently finished the Junior level and would be moving up as Cadets. The entire troop will remain intact.

“They will be Cadets for sixth, seventh and eighth grade – these girls are all sixth graders – so, over the next three years we hope to do more with the community service and more with both cancer centers. And, hopefully, some of these girls will look at doing their Silver Awards with one or both of the cancer centers.”