They may be “virtual” troop leaders for this project, but they’re real, live, phenomenal women. Here’s the skinny on the ladies who shall hold my feet to the fire:

Elizabeth Choy Moorman lives in New Jersey, which is less unfortunate than it seems.  She’s been married for 25 years to her college sweetheart, and has two kids, a graphic novelist, 23, and an aspiring opera singer, 21.  That’s just as awesome as it sounds.  She is also a yoga teacher and practitioner, which is even cooler than that sounds.  Having never been a girl scout, she’s just going to wing the hell out of this Big Scout deal, even though she was a 4-H-er as a child, which was made more complicated by the lack of available farm animals in 70s suburban Long Island.

Adrienne Dealy Thelin resides in Austin, Texas where she is a happy wife to her amazing husband, Josh, and a part time step-mom to 8 year old Dennis and 4 year old Zack.  A self identified marketing geek, Adrienne spends most of her time indulging that passion through her work.  In addition to running a PR company in Austin, she consults with a variety of state agencies, federal agencies and non-profits across the country.   Adrienne is a seventh generation Texan descended from a long line of preachers and teachers, so PR and tall tales come naturally to her.  She counts potty training a three year old among her greatest accomplishments.  As for the Big Scout Project,  Adrienne served time in both Brownies and Girl Scouts and is happy to put on her great big brownie smile* as one of Jean’s official troop leaders.

Victoria Gertenbach is a successful textile artist residing in Lancaster County, PA. Although she finds this part of the country to be frustratingly conservative, the absolute amazing beauty of the local countryside fills her with much awe and artistic inspiration (and has thus far has kept her from going insane). Happily married for the last 24 years to a very supportive man that she picked up at a bar (yes, she did), she is also the mother of two beautiful and highly intelligent daughters ages 21 and 16, along with one very small, identity confused pup. A former girl scout drop-out, (the camping trips were the only thing that remotely interested her), Victoria has four merit badges to her name, three of which everyone got just for showing up. She vows to take this mission seriously and hold Jean accountable to fulfilling her Big Scout requirements; it’s good to be in a position of power. She’s also really looking forward to learning a few scout things that she missed the first time around. To view Victoria’s work and get a little textile inspiration, visit her blog at http://thesillyboodilly.blogspot.com.

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* Adrienne is referring to The Brownie Song, lyrics here:

I have something in my pocket, it belongs across my face,
I keep it very close to me in a most convenient place.
I bet you’ll never guess it if you guess a long, long while
So I’ll take it out and put it on, it’s a great big Brownie Smile!

Now just go back and look at that picture of Adrienne as a brownie. How ’bout that smile, huh?

Jean Synodinos, Jean Synodinos, Jean Synodinos, Jean Synodinos