East Bridgewater resident Regina Foley-Eagan was recently named a membership specialist for the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts.

The girls of Troop 969, led by Regina Foley-Eagan, helped clean up the Spagone park last fall. Front row: Montana Safford, Allison Salisbury, Erin Howley, Jhonna Egan. 2nd row: Kelsey Simmons, Amanda Solari, Jayme Patnaude, Karlie Fruzzetti, Nicole Kelly, Krystal Thomas, Alexandra Halverson, Paige, Michaela Sullivan and Emily Buckley.

  Foley-Eagan was appointed as membership specialist as part of a realignment plan and organizational restructuring for Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts. 

She has been a level manager with the south region since 2007, and has been responsible for recruiting and developing members and volunteers in eight communities

The Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts was formed in February by merging three existing eastern Massachusetts Girl Scout councils: Patriots’ Trail, Southeastern Massachusetts and Spar and Spindle.

As a membership specialist, Foley-Eagan’s task is to go out and get girls and adult volunteers to join Girl Scouts.

“It’s important to get the name out there and explain what we do,” she said. “We’re not just cookies, crafts and camping.”

Girl Scouts has expanded to welcome every type of girl, she said. “It’s a great opportunity for girls to express themselves.”

One example of recruiting is going to the Independence Mall when free movies are playing on Tuesdays and Wednesday during the month of July. She said she gets the girls involved with a membership table and they go around 11:15 a.m. when the movie gets out. About 15-20 scouts have signed up at the table there, she said.

She has also worked on increasing membership at Dairy Queens since they now offer the Girl Scout cookie blizzard. 

As level manager, Foley-Eagan said she did a lot of training for volunteers. 

“We’re still in transition, as the merger progresses I will be doing less training,” she said. Instead, she will be going to different types of events in communities. The scouts will have a registration table at the East Bridgewater business expo. There will also be scheduled registration events where the organization sets up a time in the communities for girls to come in and sign up. The organization tries to publish the time of these sign-ups through the schools.

“We’re always looking for other ways to get more people involved,” said Foley-Eagan.

The merge of the councils offer more benefits to the scouts. Scouts will be able to use more facilities and more programs. The goal is for the program to become more universal so that the old and the new mesh and the program becomes more uniform.

Foley-Eagan has been a Girl Scout troop leader in East Bridgewater for eight years. She started when her daughter a Daisy. The girls she leads in Troop 969 are sixth and seventh graders.

Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts serves 45,500 girl members and 17,000 volunteers living in towns and cities spanning the eastern part of the state from the border of New Hampshire south to the Cape and Islands along the South Coast to Fall River and west to Marlborough. Programs and services are delivered to girls through 28 programs centers in 178 communities in eastern Massachusetts.

For more information call Regina Foley-Eagan at 508-923-0800 ex. 47.