You can see and hear speakers, they cant hear you. You can use the chat icon to share comments, if youre here with the girl scout troop we want to know which troop youre in, let us know. We will have a q a section in the evening and you can use q a icon and you can click on that to type in your question and you can see others questions and if you see one you can up load it to make sure we get to that question during the q a. We are recording tonights event, look for audio and video versions later on. I think this might appear on cspan later on as well and importantly tonights featured book troops 6,000 is available for sale from greenlightbookstore. Com. I pasted the link. Bookstores are closed and we are working with warehouses, if you care about supporting careers of authors and independent bookstores buying tonights featured book is a great way to show support. Tonight we are offering 5 off on the featured book when you purchase it from greenlight website y can use the coupon 60000 to apply your coupon. Today through march 27th. Let me introduce our speakers, Giselle Burgess, Girl Scout Program specially designed to help girls in new york shelter and after becoming homeless she saw there was a great need and benefit for a program like this to be offered for girls and women living in the sheltered system as well. Shes been recognized and received proclamation from the city of new york for Outstanding Service. Achievements in her community and devoting her life to empowering and uplifting women throughout queens. Giselle and her daughters continue to advocate for girls and women living in the shelter system and are determined to break the stigma of homelessness. So we will be talking to nikita stewart, the news womens club of new york recognized stewart in 2018 for coverage of homelessness, Mental Health and poverty. Shes been a finalist for the award and investigative report as an editors award, she joined the New York Times in 2014 after working tat washington post. Nikita was with us a few weeks interviewing with sand her and ive been excited about this book for a long time. My daughter is a girl scout and this is such a great story about girl scouting and new york city. Looking forward to hearing more. Troop 6000 is nikitas book, aspiring story of first girl scout founded by and for girls in homeless shelter. You will be talking with giselle and karina and she will take questions from you, nikita, take it away. Thanks, first of all, thank for having us tonight. Hi, giselle and karina. So good to see you. Oh, one of the things that i want to talk about tonight is that this story goes way back before 2017, although we first spotted each other across a room in 2015 and i had no idea that you all would experience homelessness and, you know, i would end up writing about a book about your journey, so in 2015i had taken on the beat of social service and poverty in the New York Times and i decided that i would go any shelter anyone invited me to and so Council Member in queens invited me to go to shelter in queens that had been made out of a hotel. So i showed up and i was surprised to see all of the girl scouts serving the thanksgiving lunch and, you know, karina and her sisters were there and giselle was there and i didnt write anything that day. I just left like i saw the inside of a shelter, met some women experiencing homelessness and, wow, those girl scouts sure were cute and fastforward, giselle was in the shelter system and then she came up with an idea for troop 6,000 and i will read a little bit from the chapter called troop 6,000. The troops needed a name, giselle suggested troops 1101, the sleepin zip code. Although clever and easy to remember the name would contradict with longhail traditions, they were limit today four digits, the numbers had always corresponded with the boroughs and in the bronx the troops were numbered in the one thousands, manhattan troops were 3,000, queens troops were 4,000 and Staten Island troops were 5,000 but the new troop was unique. It belonged to girls who did not know where they belonged. It wouldnt make sense to use the numbers normally applied to troops in any of the 5 boroughs given that the members had no fixed addresses, was like a floating borough in its own right or even a shadow borough because the rest of society was ignorant of or didnt want to acknowledge residents. At some point girl scout staff realized that the 6,000 designated years earlier for specialized troops like those for girls with special needs were no longer used and so the girls scouts of Greater New York settled on the name troops 6,000. You realize this is big, this is going to be amazing meredith told giselle. Giselle we wanted to jump up and down but as usual, worries dogged her. What if she couldnt recruit more girls, what if she couldnt recruit parent volunteers, what if she couldnt maintain the little bit of momentum she had already achieved. 3 days after troops were officially named giselle hit anxiety as she stood on stage and accepted a proclamation from billy james, giselle was proud of her heritage which included her fathers back southern roots. She was in esteemed company and it included the faces of Martin Luther king, jr. , malcolm x, rosa parks, maya angelo and president barack obama. The celebration was held at the jacob reese neighborhood house. Giselle stood on the stage with her children and scouts from the sunny side and woodside troops. The proclamation made no mention of giselles homelessness or troop 6,000 but a reminder for giselle that people were expecting her to be great. She had to make troop 6,000 bigger than 8 girls whereas Giselle Burgess work have had ripple effect, and the girls she recruits and mentors goes onto build a better world and community and ms. Burgess is an incredible role model to not only her five children but children across queens whereas giselle have truly enriched all of us with service and worthy of the esteem of all new yorkers, now therefore be it known that majority leader of the new York City Council gratefully honors giselle for her Outstanding Service and enduring contributions to the community. Expectations were now in writing. Giselle gave herself two weeks to find volunteers and to recruit more girls. So, giselle, tell us what happened next . [laughter] yeah, after that, it was really time to like hit the road and just keep on going, you know, so i remember going back to the office, putting together this flier, you know, recruiting volunteers and recruiting girls. I printed them out, got home that day, put on my blues, i had my uniform and i had permission to place flyers in the hallways and i remember the first flyer i was putting i was somebody was like, what are you doing, im putting up flyers because we need volunteers, you cant put anything up on the wall and i was like, yeah, i got permission, i spoke with this person and i spoke with the supervisor and they said it was fine and somebody called supervisor to confirm and im standing in the hallway my paper and tape just waiting, okay, you can go ahead and as i just remember like, every single flyer, i took the elevator and i literally on each elevator, theres two elevators, i had to go inside each elevator and im getting off all floors and im taping it right in elevators and breakfast area, common area where everyone would heat up their food and stuff like that, so, you know, we had those girls for that series that we did and i was trying to get the volunteers. I remember having big lunch and i ordered food. I had everything set up for people to come down and to train and help me and no one came. I had all of this food and no one was there and i remember i had spoken to corey the night before and i told her i was going to do training the following day, please come and so i called her and im like, hey, where are you, im in my room, the training started 15 minutes and i need you to come downstairs and do the training, so she was like, oh, okay, yeah, im just getting up. I have food, okay, im coming down. And we are eating and, you know, im just talking to her, look, i need to walk training with you and she serves herself a plate and shes eating and then shes like, all right, so im like the training is done and we will answer a couple of questions. Yeah. Corey was not paying attention. [laughter] right. And we get to a lot of that in the book. I guess im also wondering, so after that, you know, i showed up and what made you decide to let me follow you for more than a year and be in your face and show intimate details of your life . It was hard in the beginning. I remember every time that youve come around it was like just being a skeptic. I dont know, every time i Say Something shes writing in the book, i dont know what shes writing in the notebook of hers but then just seeing you i think it really was when we went camping, when we took the girls camping for the first time and seeing the way that you interacted with the girls too and the way that you went with us, we started to feel comfortable around you. You know, shes cool, shes all right. Shes really genuine, so, you know, that camping trip did it for all of us and as everything you will read in the book, the trip was a trip to remember. Yes, yes. So i guess its your turn. Yeah, karina and i came up with some questions. This one is well, i wanted to know youre obviously a writer and you enjoy it, but what attracted you to our story . What made you want to write about our story . My goodness, from the very beginning, at the time and in early 2017, the mayor had Just Announced this plan that, you know, the city was going to try to open 90 new shelters around the city, expand another 30 because there just wasnt and there still isnt enough capacity in the new york city shelter system to accommodate the thousands of people who are experiencing homelessness and so there was a lot of a lot of people around the city were upset about homelessness and where shelters were being placed, some neighborhoods felt they were getting the shortend to have stick. Some neighborhoods that had zero shelters didnt want any shelters and so there was just a lot of conflict at the time over homelessness and shelters and when i heard about the troops in the shelter, i was like, oh, my goodness, this is like it just feels different than Everything Else that ive been writing about homelessness in this moment and the city and so i immediately jumped on it and it took me a while to get in touch with giselle and finally when i got in touch with her and did initial interview over the phone, this is going to be a terrific story but i want to see scouts in action and i was obviously amazed on what i saw and i wrote the story and then it went viral and then i thought, hmm, i guess i should write a book and see what happens. I had no idea whether troop 6,000 was going to fourish or fail and i remember i sat down with giselle in the breakfast room at the sleepin and i asked her would you be willing to allow me to be in your life and the life of your girls for, i dont know, how long, i dont know how long this is going to take, at least a year and she said, absolutely. I was like, wow, enthusiastic, but she was also secretly skeptical of what i was up to but, you know, i you know, ive just im still amazed at your candor and honesty in allowing me into your life and that goes for all of the other parents and girl scouts who participated in the book. When i say participated, allowed me to follow them and i had to interview peoples mommas and families and people what is going on, but we all got through it and i hope leaders see what i saw over 18 months. I have a question, during this whole time that you have gotten to know us and youve been with us, what has been the most challenging moment for you . The camping trip was challenging in terms ofdoes i didnt know whether troops 6,000 was going to flourish or fail, i was like, oh, no, what if troops 6,000 totally falls apart, oh, my gosh. That was hard. The most difficult part too was, you know, i could not be part of the story and i couldnt interfere and there were times when people would say things and i would be like, thats not thats not right, quite right or, you know, i was just thinking about when someone loses a job and a Family Member needs to wire money and i was like, oh, please dont go through that service because they are going to eat you up with fees, but, you know, i couldnt be like, hey, hey, stop , stop. And so that was the difficult part of watching people in and not being able to help but knowing that i would have to use my journalistic tools, the tool of journalism to have an impact. You want to ask next . Yeah. Here. What was your personal favorite part to write . There were so many. I have like several just several chapters that warm my heart or are heartbreaking and i know, you know, when i was writing them i was like, oh, my goodness, so, of course, the opening of the book which almost didnt end up in the book and ended up being the beginning with hailey who is karinas sister and giselles oldest daughter, that was one of my favorite chapters. The chapter about giselle first deciding, okay, we are going to try to have the troops here and going around and putting up the flyers, that was actually the first chapter i ever wrote. It changed but it was the first chapter i ever wrote, so thats still dear to my heart and then i love ugly christmas sweater and i love man enough to be a girl scout, you know, and i love you are powerful women. Just read the whole thing. I love every chapter. [laughter] [inaudible] okay, lets see. Do you want to ask me a question . Lets see, do i have more questions for you . You know, i guess what was the most difficult part to read about yourself or others . [laughter] i think the hardest part for me really is reading the decisions that ive made in life and although they are not all perfect, i dont regret any of them, you know, ive learned from a lot of mistakes and a lot of challenges that ive had in life and i feel like its really made me who i am today, persistent and persevering and really determine today make sure that i provide Something Better for my children and for myself, but manager able to read just reading everything that ive been through and being able to like close my eyes and put myself there again was hard for me. And karina, what is your favorite part . My favorite part, probably when we we were all together and mommy finally established the troops and everything was good. I liked seeing it all come together because through the whole book it was roller coaster of emotions and series of events that were happening to her and stuff that was happening with us in the shelter and our emotions and seeing happy ending that yes, thats my favorite part. The way the bookend is my favorite part. Dont give it away. You know whats interesting about is that when i was first outlining the book, you know, you know, it kept changing because i was always around even as i was writing i was reporting and so you would think that the obviously youre in a home and not in shelter. Everybody knows that. They are no longer in shelter and thats not a surprise in the book, but, you know, i thought that the bookends when you all finally found a home, you found a home and then more things kept happening and i actually think the events that occurred after finding housing were just as important because, you know, it shows how fragile life can be and how, you know, everything all of these unexpected things that happened in your life where youre like, oh, my gosh, yet another obstacle and so i think its important for people to understand that, you know, Everyone Needs housing and there should have a right to housing but sometimes thats not the end of the story, that you need more, we just need more support, so, yes. Definitely true. I do, you know, i i wanted to make sure that we touched base today on the importance or on the impact that girl scouting has had for me, even before troops 6,000. As a single mom and just trying to find myself and trying to find out trying to learn how to raise my children and care for them in the best way that i could and it came at an amazing time and im grateful for the women that ive had in my life to push me into girl scouting, you know, and meredith making sure i was in camping trips and being able to bring my daughters into that and myself and seeing the changes that theyve made and ive made and then seeing this situation and living in shelter and taking all of that and being able to tell me kids, this is just a trip, its a journey, we will get over it and get past it and making sure that everyone that we came into contact with felt that love and that happiness that we that we want to give to everyone else and we wanted everyone else to feel as well and definitely touching on extensive communities, how Important Community is it really shows animation a difference. It was such a big change from walking into the shelter and everyone with their head down and i will not be here long enough to make friends and then building the community and being able to say hi to everyone and we were all sisters and Family Members and we looked out for each other and we advocated for each other and so i am grateful for that and i did want to express that. Yeah, you know, i thought when i sat you down and i was like, i want to follow the troops. I thought that i was going to be writing about homelessness through the eyes of girl scouts and what i really ended up writing about was this sense of community, the sense of belonging, this desire to want to give more even when you have the least and, you know, i wasnt a girl scout when i was a child. My family kind of had to pick and choose what we could afford and at the time girl scouts wasnt one of them, but i always admired the uniforms and i was like, oh, what would that be like, and, you know, these past 3 years ive been a big kid and ive learned a lot and ive learned all of the songs and the girl scout promise and [laughter] the great big moves, and so, yeah, just the power of an organization like the girl scouts to bring joy to so many girls. Its just so important and i do worry now that we are in the pandemic and so many people have lost their jobs and we know that evictions are around the corner and more families are once again going to be joining the new york city shelter system as troops 6,000 now in 20 shelters but there are 450 shelters in new york city and i think about 100 of those are for single adults, so more than half, i believe, are for families with children and so that should tell you that there are