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Work friends, at a Sunday dinner party!

My very first friends at work, still my very favorite.

One day last summer I spent six hours in a hot kitchen at the fairgrounds in Northern Virginia making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for 2,500 Girl Scouts who were camping all weekend. That’s passion.

Last January I modeled our cookie costumes so our volunteers would have an idea of what they looked like. Pictures of me wearing giant Thin Mints and Tagalongs were sent out to several Girl Scout volunteers in the Northern Virginia area. That’s passion. I work and volunteer at evening events and on the weekends.

I love what I do, Girl Scouting is my passion.

Ketchup with Hines 2036. That was my campaign slogan for my Presidential campaign. Politics was my passion for years. But as my sophomore year in college came to an end, my career path changed. Girl Scouting was a huge part of my life growing up, and I decided I wanted to make a career out of my passion. I changed my major from government to communication and I was determined to work for the Girl Scouts. I had a professor in college; I like to call him the Mr. Springman of George mason who always encouraged me to go after my passion. He made phone calls on my behalf, and mentored me throughout my collegiate career. Because of my professor, family, and friends I am able to work everyday at a job that I love and I am passionate about.

Money gets in the way of people following their passions. Working for a non-profit, at least in my case will never make me rich. I have learned to measure wealth not in monetary terms, but in smiles of my Daisy troop each meeting, in the number of girls my donations send to summer camp, in our wonderful volunteers who have full time jobs but still find the time to dedicate to Girl Scouting, and last but certainly not least in the number of Girl Scout Cookies I get to eat on any given day. The amount of joy I get out of my job, my passion, makes me wealthier than most.

I sent my resume once a week for six months until I was given an interview. I’m not sure if it was because they were sick of me, or because I offered to accept cookies as a form of payment but I finally got the job. Almost two years later I’m still here, and Girl Scouting is still my passion. My coworkers in Leesburg and in the DC office have become my Girl Scout Family.