Over a dozen Girl Scouts, along with leaders, parents and guardians, visited Walnutport's Canal Locktender's House and Museum recently.

The historic building, built in 1828 and one of only two remaining locktender's houses still standing along the entire stretch of the Lehigh Canal, was privately owned up until 1985, when it was purchased by the Walnutport Canal Association, a group formed in 1982 to help maintain and preserve the history and borough's section of the canal.Marilyn Kaul, vice president and historian for the canal association, and Betty Moditch, member and tour guide, who was actually born in the house when her grandfather owned it, greeted the excited group as it entered the building from off the rain-soaked towpath just after 9 a.m.After a brief welcome and introduction, Kaul asked the group to split into two smaller groups for the tour since the house itself consists of only three rooms, other than the addition in which they were standing.Since the group was made up of Daisy Scouts all the way up to Junior Scouts, leaders Tiffany Schaeffer and Laurie Beers, who are co-service unit managers, and Raeann Creyer suggested the girls split into an older group and a younger group.Then, as Moditch took one group of Scouts through a lengthy tour of the house, Kaul stayed with the other group in the museum addition to give them an overview of the life and times of canal-era families.Beers later explained that, as co-service unit managers, she and Schaeffer manage all the troops in the Northern Lehigh area and, because most troops start meeting the first week of September, wanted to have a kick-off event to show what the girls do as a group and also what they can look forward to as they progress in levels as a Scout. In addition, she said they are looking for some service projects for the girls to do, which they may do at the canal.She also said the leaders like to take the girls to various historic sites and other fun opportunities within their own community, such as apple picking in September, visiting the local Lehigh Gap Nature Center and more.Beers said that, especially when the girls are still Daisies (kindergarten and first grade), Brownies (second and third grade), or even Juniors (fourth through sixth grade), they like to take them on outings that are local so "it introduces them to something in their community that they may not have known was here ... and the people that are volunteering in their community and doing things behind the scenes.""That's very important," she said, "because everyone thinks that you have to go far away to see something (of interest)."For example, she said that even though many of the girls may have already been to the annual Walnutport Canal Festival, perhaps they never got to see the inside of the locktender's house itself, which is historic and interesting.For her own part, 10-year-old Paige Craddock, of Slatington, said she enjoyed the visit."It was pretty cool. I really liked the upstairs."Craddock's favorite part, she said, was the arrowhead collection.When asked why she enjoys Scouting, Craddock said that she enjoys helping people and that "it's really fun to do stuff."Beers said any girls still interested in signing up this year for Girl Scouts may contact her at lpeters-beers@netzero.net or 610-462-7301.