Time Well Spent

By Meg Sommerfeld

Troop 2140 opens its meeting with a time-honored tradition. Standing in a circle in a gymnasium, two dozen girls and their mothers hold up their right hands and recite the Girl Scout promise: "On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout law."

Spoken in unison, the words ring familiar, as do the girls' activities. They sing songs. They earn badges. And, of course, they sell cookies.

It's hard to imagine they're any different from countless other Girl Scout troops in cities and towns across the country. But what makes them unconventional is the one thing the girls have in common: Their mothers...