Tucson Girl Scouts now have a place to call their own.
Sunlight streams through windows in the two-story building, officially dubbed the Angel Charity Place for Girls. It's named after the first donor to the project that included the development of the entire campus and the construction of the new building at 4300 E. Broadway, said MacGyver-Marsha Tank, the chief properties and logistics officer for the Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona.
We took a quick tour on Friday, just a week before the grand opening of the 11,000-square-foot building on Saturday, Aug. 26.
You should take the girls in your life to that — even if they're not Girl Scouts. This will be a good time.
Play Legos, Jenga and Connect Four in this open space.
The new two-story building is bright, open and modern, with concrete floors and splashes of color on accent walls.
On the ground level, girls can play jumbo-size Jenga and Connect Four. A tub of LEGOs beckons future engineers, and wordsmiths can master their craft on a magnet wall.
The magnet wall is on the side of the new Girl Scout building stairwell. It's grand opening is this weekend.
A platform on the stairs doubles as a stage for girls to get a taste of public speaking or theater, and a glass display case shares the history of "who we are, where we come from and where we're going," Tank said.
This is a space to create, explore and dream.
The first floor is where you can stock up on your Girl Scouts merch — T-shirts, badges, etc. — in a small store. The retail space can also provide work experience for girls who intern there.
Buy all the Girl Scouts things.
The accordion doors on the first floor open up to bring the outside in both in the lobby and a separate space with a small rock wall for bouldering. There are no harnesses here.
"This is our city campus for girls who don't have the same opportunities traditional troops might have with camping and outdoors," Tank said. "The programs and activities can flow outside."
No harnesses, but don't worry, those mats are soft.
Hula hoops peek out of chests in the health and wellness space. There are also yoga blocks and mats in there for some girl-powered yoga or maybe Zumba.
On the second floor, girls can innovate in the STEM lab or get creative in the art studio. Although Girl Scouts programming already included STEM activities, the availability of this space give troops and individual girls more opportunities to experiment. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
"This will provide the tools troops might not have at home," said Jessica Malordy, the communications coordinator. "You might have your meetings at home, but if you want to use easels or have access to a STEM lab, you can't do that in your church or basement or school, but you can take a field trip here."
This is where all the science happens.
Nationally, Girl Scouts have embraced STEM programming, recently introducing 23 new badges for STEM and outdoor activities, for everything "from roller coaster design to rockets to building robots," said Malordy.
The capacity of the new building is about 300, but Tank said she expects to see about 150 girls in the facility on a given night. And while it can't house meetings for every troop in the area, a reservation system will give troops that are paying to meet somewhere else the possibility of gathering in-house.
The second floor also houses a full kitchen where girls can learn about budgeting, menu selection and healthy choices — maybe even with herbs or tomatoes harvested from a garden outside.
Another meeting space, called the "Biz Lounge," is like a computer lab minus the computers. Instead, girls will have access to iPads, a 3D printer and hopefully a SMART Board.
This is also a space for girls to get real with each other.
Before, Girl Scouts made do with a conference-y space next door, with long tables, a small kitchen and a library.
"This enables us to give girls more opportunities, and so all of the Girl Scouts programs are really innovative and ask girls to empower themselves," Malordy said. "Now they get a space to call their own to do that in."
Explore for yourself at the Grand Opening Block Party, 2-5 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 26. at the Angel Charity Place for Girls, 4300 E. Broadway.
It's free for everyone, and there will be food trucks, music, activities and games. We hear there's a water slide, too, so bring a towel.
Community organizations will also be on hand to facilitate art projects, science experiments and more fun.
For more information, visit girlscoutssoaz.org/grandopening.
You can feel the girl power.
