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For 25 years, McLean resident Linda Kuzmack has helped generations of Girl Scouts turn community needs into meaningful service projects—and inspired many participants to keep volunteering into adulthood.

Beth Gamba of McLean said Kuzmack teaches scouts to look beyond accumulating service hours. Under her guidance, they first consider what a community needs, then brainstorm a response, develop a plan and carry it out.

Kuzmack organized her first volunteer project with McLean students in 2000. Her work has since grown into a multigenerational tradition. She and fellow troop leader Linda Walsh now have adult daughters who lead their own daughters’ troops, meaning three generations of Girl Scout volunteers are serving at the same time.

In late winter and early spring of 2025, Kuzmack guided scouts from Kent Gardens Elementary School troops 50131 and 55033, along with Falls Church Troop 50219, as they prepared a March 31 science service day at Stanton Elementary School in Washington, D.C.

The scouts designed activities and planned how they would manage the event. Walsh has supported Kuzmack’s decades-long relationship with Stanton, including twice-yearly science days that give younger volunteers opportunities to practice leadership and mentorship.

Kuzmack began the Stanton initiative 25 years ago. Since then, troops working with her have developed original, needs-based projects and put those plans into action at the school.

Walsh said their daughters and granddaughters have continued serving, crediting Kuzmack with fostering a commitment that brings volunteers back even after high school graduation.

Chuck Marks, whose family joined the McLean Girl Scout service unit 15 years ago, said Kuzmack’s consistency allowed his children to understand the value of making a lasting commitment to a community. He also praised the quality of the projects she helped young volunteers plan.

The experience has had an immediate effect on younger scouts. Sophia Hobson, a fifth grader at Kent Gardens and member of Troop 50131, said she was nervous during her first time volunteering on the project but felt confident afterward. Fourth grader Abby Nguyen returned for her second year.

Clara Marks, now a college student, began volunteering with Kuzmack at a Stanton Science Day in 2016, when she was 10. She said the experience helped her develop public-speaking, mentorship and leadership skills.

Stanton Principal Allen Richardson described Kuzmack as a beloved school partner. He said her year-after-year presence makes the relationship authentic and reinforces the idea that service should be part of how people see and respond to the world around them.