With summer nearing, many people are starting to plan trips or finalize trip plans. While there have been the trips to Florida, California, or somewhere else within the nation being talked about, there has also been word about some people going outside of the borders for their summer getaway.

Junior Daylin Diamond is one of those people taking the leap to other soil. Daylin is taking a 15 day trip around Europe and neighboring countries with her Girl Scouts, Troop 1771. Going with her are seven girls from the troop, some of the mothers, and some of Diamond’s family.

“We are going to Paris, London, Switzerland, Rome, Versaille,” said Diamond. “[We’re touring] two of the five World Centres and main sights, like the London Eye.”

In order to raise money for the trip, one of the fundraisers was scrapbooking days. Diamond stated that the scrapbook fundraiser was fun and raised a lot of money, which helped get the funds for the girls attending. Though the girls worked together and have paid off their part of the trip, the moms are still hitting the pavement and raising money for the trip, as said by Diamond.

“I am excited to go. I’m nervous about the plane, but I will probably have a lot of fun when there. [One thing] we get to do is go in the underwater train tunnel. I’m scared for that. [But] this is a once-in-a-lifetime experience,” said Diamond.

Along with Diamond, junior Alexa Diehl is taking the Europe trip with Troop 1771. Along the way, the troop is visiting the Eiffel Tower and The Lucerne, as well as Florence and Adelboden.

“[The trip] costs about $5,000 per person attending,” said Diehl. “In order to do this, we did fundraisers like a princess party, scrapbooking days – pay $30, we serve food, the participants get all day to scrapbook, a Polar Express themed event and, of course, the cookie sales.”

Both Diehl and Diamond said they are looking forward to this trip as it is exciting and a great opportunity.

Similarly to those girls, junior Mary Halloran is taking a European trip with Troop 784, her Girl Scouts troop. However, Halloran’s troop is leaving on June 12th and arriving in Munich, Germany and staying about three weeks.

“One thing we planned is that we’re meeting up with our leader’s family in Switzerland to have a Switzerland family style dinner and we get to climb a mountain in Switzerland,” said Halloran.

Troop 784 is also traveling to the churches in Rome, visiting Vatican City, going on gondola rides and also climbing the Eiffel Tower. Along with adventuring through The Louvre and taking senior pictures, the troop is meeting up with fellow junior Emily Turner, as she will be moved out to England by that time. Turner is said to give troop 784 a tour around England.

Though this is a once-in-a-lifetime event, as said by Halloran, much fundraising was needed to be done. For this troop, the total cost per person was between $3,000 and $5,000.

“We did a father-daughter dance, hosted the Pinewood Derby, cookies, TJ’s pizzas, flower sales, and made and sold wreaths,” said Halloran. “We also did our mother-daughter bunkos and trivia nights.”

Considering all of the work that has been put into these trips, the consensus of the girls taking the trips have said that it is well worth the time and sweat and that they cannot wait to take the adventures; especially because they get to experience the journey with some of their closest friends.

“The overall experience of going to a different country and taking in everything I possibly could [is what I look forward to] because I love adventure and it’s just my favorite thing. I get to adventure with some of my best friends, one who’s been there my whole life. It’s exciting that I get to take my friends on a trip of a lifetime and experience it with them, at a young age too. One of my friends is actually making a documentary of the trip. It’s one of those crazy things that everyone looks forward to, ” said Halloran.