The phrase "Girl Scouts" conjures images of camping, female empowerment, girls in sashes and vests and, of course, the popular cookies. "Homelessness," in comparison, evokes people sleeping on the streets, jobless and in dire circumstances. In Troop 6000, however, journalist Nikita Stewart complicates matters: she asks readers to reconsider both of those images as she brings them together in her account of the first Girl Scout troop to serve families in homeless shelters in New York City, founded within a shelter in Queens.
The narrative follows Giselle Burgess, mother of five, as she--like many others in New York City--slipped from barely scraping by to falling behind financially. Her family ended up in the shelter system, but getting involved in the Girl Scouts helped her to find a new purpose amid her new reality. Stewart's writing blends the history of the Girl Scouts and its founder, Juliette Gordon Low, with the formation of this new and unconventional troop, as she highlights similarities across time, culture and circumstance.
Troop 6000 is accessible and inspirational. Stewart is uncompromising as she makes visible the stark reality of what homelessness in the contemporary United States can look like--and how quickly someone might find themselves in that position when just a handful of things goes wrong. This book is about strength, hope and leadership, and the empowerment of these girls and their families as they came together in Troop 6000. Burgess's work shows how much more can be given through the traditions of scouting, if only people think a little less traditionally. -- Michelle Anya Anjirbag, freelance reviewer