As COVID numbers ease, and travel restrictions lapse, this past February vacation was filled with vacationing in and out of the WHS community. A group of seven Girl Scouts here at WHS took it upon themselves to plan a service trip to Puerto Rico as a senior trip. The troop included WHS seniors Emerson Waite, Sara Stec, Sophie Scerbin, Omshreya Swain, Molly Northrup, Riya Patel, and Lily Fox.

In choosing the location of their trip, troop member Stec states, “We wanted to go somewhere new where none of us had ever been before and somewhere that allowed us to learn about and immerse ourselves in a new culture.” 

Approximately two years went into planning the trip, including finding housing that would fit seven girls and parents, creating an itinerary of activities, and fundraising to pay for the trip. This fundraising included selling cookies, magazines, and hosting many textile drives at the high school. 

The troop flew down to the US island and began their trip. They rented out an AirBnb for seven girls and five parents in San Juan. On a typical day, they woke up around 7:30-8 a.m. and would make breakfast consisting of traditional Puerto Rican breakfast food. 

Troop member Waite says, “It typically consisted of rice and beans from the dinner the night prior, or native fresh fruit.”

After eating, they would all get ready for the day and continue with their agenda. Some of their activities included: meeting other girl scout troops, exploring San Juan, cleaning the state park near the beach, planting, and hiking through El Yunque National Park, the only tropical rainforest in the US.

They would have different things for lunch, including walking to local sandwich shops, and making their own food at home. For dinner, they all worked to prepare meals each night. 

Another girl scout, Scerbin, notes her experience in Puerto Rico at El Yunque National Park,”We hiked to the base of the rainforest where there was a pool of water, from that point you could jump off rocks and rope swings. If you hike up past that, which we did, you get to the nature made rock slide. That was super fun, I think it was a good experience and definitely got people out of their comfort zones!”

A major part of their trip was their service activity, where they helped clean up a skate park near the beach, picked up trash, created signs to remind people to keep it clean and even planted some plants in the walking paths nearby. 

Stec states, “Overall, the trip was so fun! It was such a fun and exciting experience. We saw so many beautiful sights, tried lots of good food, and spent a lot of time together as a troop in a beautiful place. We also learned so much about Puerto Rico which I found really intriguing because even though Puerto Rico is a part of the U.S., I was not taught much about it before.”