4 THE QUEENS COURIER • MARCH 3, 2022 FOR BREAKING NEWS VISIT WWW.QNS.COM
Girl Scouts Troop 6000 for families in shelters celebrates fi fth anniversary
BY BILL PARRY
bparry@schnepsmedia.com
@QNS
Girl Scouts of Greater New York is recognizing
the fi ft h anniversary of the creation
of Troop 6000, the fi rst-of-its-kind
program serving girls and women living
in shelters for the homeless.
On Feb. 24, 2017, Troop 6000 held its
very fi rst meeting at a shelter for homeless
families at the Sleep Inn Hotel in Long
Island City with just seven girls. Th e program
has since expanded to 23 shelters
across all fi ve boroughs and has reached
more than 2,000 girls and women, in a
partnership with the city’s Department of
Homeless Services and with the support of
then-Councilman Jimmy Van Bramer and
donors from across the city and the world.
Troop 6000 had its genesis at Sleep Inn
Hotel where Giselle Burgess and her children
were living aft er the home she rented
in Flushing was sold. Burgess, a community
development specialist for Girl
Scouts of Greater New York, approached
then-COO Meredith Maskara about creating
a troop for her daughters and other
children living in the shelter. Burgess led
the fi rst meeting with seven girls, and
as the program spread through word of
mouth, it quickly grew to 22 members.
Maskara, who lives with her family
in Sunnyside, is now the chief executive
offi cer of Girl Scouts of Greater
New York.
“Every girl in New York City deserves
the sense of community and support
that comes from being a Girl Scout and
the opportunity to see herself as a leader
— that’s what Troop 6000 is all about,”
Maskara said.
Troop 6000 brings the Girl Scouting
experience to girls and women who
wouldn’t otherwise have access to it.
Girl Scouts in Troop 6000 meet weekly,
earn badges in subjects ranging from
STEM to business and entrepreneurship,
explore the city on fi eld trips and
attend camp upstate — all at no expense
to families.
Part of the experience is the Girl Scout
Cookie Program, and this year Troop
6000’s annual cookie sale will return,
coinciding with the in-person anniversary
celebration at the Seaport from
March 10 to 12. All proceeds from cookie
sales fund Troop 6000’s activities.
“We won’t stop until every girl in New
York City has the opportunity to join the
sisterhood of Girl Scouts, so we are especially
grateful to anyone that has purchased
Girl Scout cookies from Troop
6000 or made a donation,” Maskara said.
“Your support will help us expand the
program for years to come. I am incredibly
grateful to the many people who
bring their creativity, compassion and
commitment to making this program
happen: from shelter staff , our partners
at DHS, our incredible volunteers, our
unstoppable staff team and, of course,
the girls themselves and their parents
and caregivers who make it all worth it.”
In 2018, Girl Scouts of Greater
New York launched the Troop 6000
Transition Initiative to support girls and
families while they transition to permanent
housing and keep them in the
Girl Scout community. Th e average stay
for a family in the shelter system is 18
months. When families transition from
shelter to permanent housing, maintaining
a sense of community and consistency
is vital. Th e initiative helps girls stay
connected to the community during this
time by integrating them with a local
troop, providing welcome home packages
and off ering fi nancial support for Girl
Scout participation for up to three years.
Burgess’ daughter, Hailey Vicente, 18,
a founding member of Troop 6000, is
now in college and a Girl Scout volunteer.
She recently earned her Gold
Award, making her the fi rst member of
Troop 6000 to earn this highest award in
Girl Scouting.
“Five years ago, Troop 6000 created a
community for Girl Scouts like me who
shared the experience of lying in a shelter,
and I found that sisterhood to be very
powerful,” Vicente said. “Girl Scout meetings
were a safe place for me and my sisters
to connect and just have fun with
other girls who were going through the
same things as us and a distraction from
the situation we were in. Even aft er moving
out of the shelter, Troop 6000 remains
an important part of my life, and the
leadership skills I’ve gained through Girl
Scouting have really shaped who I am
today.”
QNS fi le photo
Girl Scouts of Greater New York’s Troop
6000 is celebrating the fi fth anniversary
MTA to pilot platform doors at three NYC subway stations, including one in Queens
BY KEVIN DUGGAN
editorial@qns.com
@QNS
Th e MTA wants to test platform doors
at three subway stations in Manhattan and
Queens, the agency’s chief Janno Lieber
announced last week.
The Metropolitan Transportation
Authority will pilot the barriers at Times
Square on the 7 line platform, at Th ird
Avenue on the L line, and at Sutphin
Boulevard/JFK on the E train, Lieber told
NY1.
“We’re going to be piloting both platform
doors at three stations where the
engineering does work,” the transit leader
told the station on Feb. 23.
Lieber did not provide a timeline for the
project, but agency working group known
as the Track Intrusion Task Force presented
more details to the MTA’s full board on
Feb. 24, according to MTA spokesperson
Tim Minton.
Th e Times Square screens won’t be
where Michelle Go was pushed in front
of a train last month, which was on the
vast station complex’s southbound R train
platform, because an MTA study of every
platform found that waiting area to be too
narrow.
Lieber convened the task force on Dec.
10 aft er a “signifi cant increase” of people
going onto the tracks. Th e panel will also
talk about installing sensors and lighting
to help stop people from going onto the
trackbed.
“We’re also going to be piloting new
technologies to detect track incursion
using thermal technology, using laser
technology, so we can know quicker when
people get on the tracks and hopefully,
interdict that kind of behavior,” he said.
“It’s a really complicated issue. A lot of
people are doing it voluntarily. Sometimes
people with mental health issues do it and
they don’t understand the dangers and so
on,” Lieber added.
Th e Authority is also working with the
Psychiatry Department at NYU Langone
to fi nd out how to deter people from killing
themselves by jumping on the track, he said.
In the aft ermath of Go’s killing, politicians
started pushing the MTA to add
the edge gates to its platforms, but Lieber
said last month that there were “special
complexities” unique to New York’s subway
system, like its age, diff erent train
car models, pillars blocking the way, how
much extra weight some waiting areas can
bear, and confl icts with wheelchair access.
But the transit guru vowed to take
another look at it.
“Platform doors are an idea that works
in many places, but there’s some special
complexities in New York,” Lieber told
reporters on Jan. 18. “Th at said, we’re
always looking for ways that we can make
the system safer.”
An almost 4,000-page report MTA
commissioned the engineering fi rm STV
to do in 2017 and fi nished in 2019 — but
which the agency did not release publicly
until last month — looked at the feasibility
of doors for every platform across its
472 stations.
Th e review found that only 128 stations,
or about 27%, could accommodate the
barriers at a cost of about $7 billion.
Th e Th ird Avenue station on the L train
line was actually already recommended
as a pilot program in the three-year-old
report by STV, and the engineering fi rm
wrote at the time it was producing “preliminary
construction documents for the
design-build of half-height PSDs” at that
stop, according to the report.
Th e company looked at building socalled
platform screen doors (PSD),
which are 8-foot-tall glazed barriers.
Alternatively, the company also considered
automatic platform gates (APG),
which are around 4- to 6-foot tall to fi t
stations that have lower ceilings. APGs
work for platforms that can’t bear as much
weight and allow for better airfl ow.
Th e report shows examples for both
types of gates on other transit systems
overseas, such as the London
Underground in the UK and the Paris
Métro in France.
For the L train’s Th ird Avenue stop,
APGs would cost some $23.4 million
while the taller PSDs would be around
$3.8 million more expensive.
Th e Times Square 7 train platforms
could accommodate APGs at $31.4 million
and PSDs for $38.8 million, with similar
price tags for Sutphin Boulevard on
the E line of $31.7 million and $40.6 million,
respectively, according to the STV
review.
File photo by Dean Moses
of its creation in a
Long Island City shelter for
homeless families.
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