LOXLEY, Alabama — Eight girls from Loxley got the opportunity of a lifetime recently. Actually, make that nearly two lifetimes, because what they were able to experience has happened just once in the last 100 years.

In celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Girl Scouts, members of Troop 8393 of Loxley made the trip to Washington, D.C., recently to participate in the Girl Scouts Rock the Mall 100th Anniversary Sing-A-Long at the National Mall in the Nation’s Capital.

According to the website girlsouts.org Girl Scouts was created by Juliette “Daisy” Gordon Low in Savannah, Ga., on March 12, 1912.

Today, Girl Scouts of the USA has a membership of over 3.2 million girls and adults, with more than 59 million women who count themselves as alumnae in the United States.

 “It was just an awesome experience for all of us,” said Troop Leader Tammy Davis. While in Washington, the girls and their Troop leaders got to see the White House, the Washington Monument, the Lincoln Memorial, both the Vietnam War Memorial and the World War II Memorial, along with several of the National museums.

They also got to stand in the spot where Martin Luther King Jr. gave his famous, “I have a dream,” speech.

“They’ve studied those things but to actually get to see them in person really brought it all home,” Davis said. “It was a truly amazing experience.”

More than 250,000 Girl Scouts from across the United States participated in the event, including a troop from Illinois that the Loxley Troop has been corresponding with as part of the Troop’s Friendship Badge qualification.

“Several of the girls have been pen pals with girls from their Troop for quite some time, sending letters back and forth,” Davis said, “but to actually get to meet them was great and just added that much more to the overall experience.”

As part of the experience, members of Troop 8393 exchanged what they called S.W.A.P.S., which stands for Special Whatchamacallits Affectionately Pinned Somewhere, with member of Troops from other parts of the country. Troop 8393’s S.W.A.P.S. included a small bag of sand representing the Gulf Coast attached with a safety pin.

It was an opportunity for the girls and their Troop leaders to experience, not only history and government, but other cultures as well, Davis said.

The girls and their leaders go to meet people from nearly 20 different countries, Davis said, including Switzerland, England, China and Japan, among others.

“These were people who were not necessarily affiliated with Girl Scouts, they were just visiting the Capital from all around the world,” she said. “They learned to say hello or some other phrase in all the different languages. They were asked to give something and get something in return. We met a group from China and our girls taught them how to give them five. They had no idea what it was.”

Davis said another experience for the girls was meeting troops either going to or coming home from service overseas.

“It was a heartwarming experience to see our girls, without any outside coaxing, go up to the troops, talk to them and thank them for their service to our country,” Davis said.

Many of the troops who will be serving in Kuwait and Afghanistan also provided addresses so that the girls can correspond with them.

“We’ll send them cards, letters and even boxes of cookies,” Davis said.