After the LA fires, the Girl Scouts are doing it for themselves

Days after the L.A. fires started, Danelle Jiron was thinking of ways to help the thousands of Girl Scouts and volunteers who have been displaced.

The Sierra Madre resident is a dedicated volunteer, having spent over two decades as first a troop leader and then a co-manager of the Crown Poppy Service Unit, which comprises 104 troops across Pasadena, Altadena and Sierra Madre — the largest service unit within Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles before the fires.

" Every single one of my troops has lost at least one home," Jiron said.

On all levels, the organization mobilized immediately in the wake of the destruction, organizing donations and connecting those in need with resources.

"The Girl Scout community is a very tight community," said Jiron, who lived in Altadena for years before moving to Sierra Madre. " As soon as the reality set in, it was a call to action for those of us that were not in the immediate path."

After putting out a call for Girl Scouts insignia on Facebook, Danelle Jiro started to receive boxes of donations from across the world.

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Courtesy Danelle Jiron

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Beyond donations, Jiron was looking for other ways to help. A conversation she had with a young woman came to mind.

"One of the things she talked to me about was her Girl Scouts vest. And how, you know, she didn't grab it and her house is gone," Jiron said.

A piece of themselves

The garment is a revered object to every Girl Scout: the embodiment of discipline, mastery, pride and belonging.

"Their vest is a very personal thing," Jiron said.

Jiron remembered the many, many extra patches, troop numbers, pins, and, of course, the vests themselves — all unused — she herself has accumulated over the years as a scout leader.

" If a girl doesn't complete all the steps, she doesn't wear the badge," Jiron said. "So when I was a leader, I would buy 10 badges, but only eight girls would earn it."

She could only imagine all the extra badges troop leaders were holding on to out there — waiting to be put to good use.

Collecting the insignia is the first step, with goal to rebuild the vests to look like the originals.

"We're making sure when we give you back your vest, it shows your troop number, it shows your number of stars and then the badges you had earned," she said.

Girl Scouts at one of Project InVest's volunteering events.

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Courtesy Danelle Jiron

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A Girl Scout at a Project InVest event helping to rebuild vests that were lost in the fires.

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Courtesy Danelle Jiron

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Project InVest

On Jan. 12 — less than a week after the fires started — Jiron posted in a Girl Scouts Facebook group run by volunteers that she was seeking unused insignia.

Project InVest 2025 reverberated around the globe.  

"I've had Girl Scouts from Japan, from Guam, from Barcelona, from Switzerland also send me their leftover badges," she said. Soon, her living room and dining room were stacked with boxes.

Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles stepped in to offer storage space and other help, as did their parent organization, Girl Scouts of the USA. Both entities are providing items that Project InVest doesn't get in donations.

"Giving them back their vest meant giving them back a piece of themselves in Girl Scouts," said Theresa Edy-Kiene, chief executive of Girl Scouts of Greater Los Angeles, which serves more than 35,000 scouts and works with some 19,000 volunteers across a wide swath of the state.

With Girl Scout cookie season underway, the Los Angeles chapter has established a special program for fire relief. All proceeds from cookies purchased through this link are split among affected Girl Scouts to help fund their troop activities throughout the year.

"Entire neighborhoods are gone," Edy-Kiene said. " They made it very clear to me that they didn't want the fires to take one more thing away from them."

A role model

Volunteers and Girl Scouts at one of Project InVest's volunteering events.

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Courtesy Danelle Jiro

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Ninth-grader Emma D. (Girl Scouts policy doesn’t allow the last name of a Scout to be used) joined Crown Poppy about two years ago, frequently making the trip from her home in Baldwin Park to meet up with her  Girl Scout sisters.

She remembered how welcoming everyone was during her first visit.

"And I just like, oh, they're really cool," she said. " I want to be a role model for other girls like they were to me."

After the fires, the 14-year-old is among a few dozen volunteers and Girl Scouts spending their Saturdays helping Project InVest sort through donations, iron on badges and sew vests.

She said there's no place she'd rather be. "If I could be a sister to them, like they would be a sister to me. I'll do anything for that," she said.

Jiron, the project leader, says the goal is to complete the effort within six months. After that, she plans to send leftover materials to other chapters for similar efforts.

So far, Jiron said, the team has rebuilt about 100 vests. She said seeing the girls jumping in excitement as they put on their new vests has been priceless.

 "These kids have been through such a horrific set of experiences that nobody should have to go through, right?" Jiron said. "That's what it's all for, for that laughter and for that joy."