Joining the Mason Nation

How many Girl Scouts fit on a basketball court? Hundreds!

Yesterday our little Daisy troop had their first experience with a large scale Girl Scout event. George Mason University's Dance and Cheer squads hosted a clinic before a Women's Basketball game, and then had the girls do the cheer and the dance routine at halftime. Since a number of our Daisy Scouts had sisters only a year or two younger, we dressed them all the same and sent them down on the court together. Of course the smaller ones were completely off when it came to left/right directions, but they were trying so hard and obviously proud of being included, so it did not matter.

After the clinic, and lunch, game preparations began. The basketball teams started warming up, the pep band began arriving, one of the court sponsors had a remote control blimp flying around, the cheerleaders started doing flips on the sidelines, one of the other moms provided everyone with team color pompom ponytail holders... the girls didn't know where to look, it was such a circus. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I had not been to a college basketball game since college, and while basketball games were a big event at my little Division II school, they were not done up the way a University does them.

We watched some of the game, then went and lined up for the halftime show. This is when the team mascot tried talking to the girls, with mixed results. The George Mason mascot is a Patriot, a large cartoonish suited character in a tricornered hat and tail coat. His slightly plush face was GMU team colors, green and gold. Some of the girls high-fived him, while others (like my Monkeys) edged away. Anyway, they all made it to the court. They did the cheer: "P-A-T-S, let's go Mason!" repeated four times with arm motions, then held the last position, and then jumped up and down and screamed. Then they did their simple dance routine and exited the court while all the moms raced back to the exits to collect their girls. And then, the moment Monkey1 had been waiting for... receiving her first event participation patch for her Daisy vest. We stayed for a bit more of the game before heading home.

This morning, school on a two-hour delay due to ice, impressions of yesterday's outing surfaced. Monkey1 collected the pompoms and donned a skirt, bouncing around the house, and later I caught her trying to dribble my giant exercise ball. Monkey2 talked about the white violin, electric I suspect, that played in the pep band. But when asked what they liked best about the day, well, the cotton candy they shared on the ride home topped the list.