Matfield Green ? A group of eastern Kansas Girl Scouts are creating a Web site that will allow girls in remote areas to join a troop.

The 13 Girls Scouts — from Scranton, Goessel, Carbondale, Allen, Cottonwood Falls, Reading and Emporia and ranging in age from 11 to 17 –are learning HTML. Their knowledge will lead, by the end of the summer, to “The G-Link,” a virtual Girl Scout troop funded by private donations and a grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The project is “for girls, by girls,” the Girl Scout way, said Susan Smith, one of several volunteers who was at Homestead Ranch near Matfield Green last week to teach the Girl Scouts how to create the Web site.

The $40,000 USDA grant, the only one given to a Kansas Girl Scout council, is for rural leadership development. Other troops across the country are using it to train and certify baby sitters, help with disaster planning or volunteer with Head Start programs.