Peet LEAD group finishes year with movie, reflections, goalsetting

The Peet Junior High gym was fluttering on Friday, April 28 with teenage girls in their pajamas and comfy clothes to watch the light-hearted Disney favorite, “Moana.” The Tiger time girls group, LEAD, organized the event as almost a slumber party for the girls involved and others who were close friends.

At the beginning of the year, 80 girls were involved in LEAD and 40 of them have come consistently throughout the year. The group meets during Tiger time twice a week to talk about topics like kindness, friendships, empathy and self-confidence.

“I hoped that all the girls currently in LEAD could come, but I don’t get too hung up on numbers.  The movie event was for LEAD, but we definitely had some girls join who haven’t been in LEAD, and that was totally OK, basically close friends of girls who are in LEAD. We are not an exclusive group at all. The only thing was for sake of space and food. I had to keep it around the size of LEAD,” said Rebecca Lins, Peet counselor and Peet LEAD director. In the end, about 50 girls showed up to the movie slumber party.

It was a big bash for the girls in LEAD and definitely a night to remember, “We watched the movie in the back gym, and we definitely set it up like a big slumber party with blankets, pillows and a ton of pillow pets. Our ninth grade leadership girls all signed up and brought different desserts for the group, ranging from Oreo fluff to monster bars to cookies,” Lins said.

Lins said that she still has a lot in store for the LEAD girls heading into the last month of school. “We just have May left for LEAD this year. I usually like to do a time of reflecting on the year and making goals going forward. I also will have an end of the year video that shows a lot of what we did over the year. The girls also wrote letters to themselves last September as one of our first activities, and I have held onto them since, waiting to give them back in May. We have done this the last couple of years, and the girls love this activity, seeing how much they’ve grown over the last school year,” Lins said.

As for next year, Lins said she hopes to continue discussing key topics revolving around leadership, doing the seventh grade girls presentation, movie night and collaborating with the Holmes LEAD group on many more activities.