Zebra Teaches Girl Scouts About Caring

By Tina M. Gohr
Green Bay News-Chronicle
Not that the smiling faces of about 50 Girl Scouts needed any lessons of compassion, but the local Lac Baie Council sponsored a program probing the sensitive area Saturday at its local program center on Finger Road.

Based on the national book "Zink The Zebra" by 11-year-old cancer victim Kelly Weil, the lessons to be learned were about acceptance and a sense of awareness and appreciation for individual differences.

"The author was experiencing chemo treatment," said Girl Scouts of Lac Baie Council program director Laurie Nelson, who read the brief book to the scouts. As a result Weil looked different than the other children at her school.

"We teach the girls that it is OK to be different. What matters is the inside, not the outside," continued Nelson. "What's inside is what counts."

The elementary school-aged girls were given small bean-bag "spotted" zebras Saturday rather than the standard "striped" variety.

On index-sized cards, the girls wrote what personal traits their zebra might acquire such as a name, what it likes and doesn't like to do, how it is similar or not alike and the zebra's favorite color.

The zebras were then all placed in a pile in the center of their big circle. Each girl read aloud their zebra's personal profile.

Kylie Alsleben wrote that her zebra, named "Mistary," preferred playing "spotted" tag over "striped" tag.

After all the cards were read, the girls retrieved their own zebra from the pile. "Obviously," said Nelson, "The girls didn't know what zebra is theirs based on their zebra's descriptions (though nearly all different)."

The experiment also enforced kindness, respect and understanding. Girl Scout Brianna Klein valued the "Zink The Zebra" story. "It taught me to respect myself and help others in need."