It’s Your Community-Serve It!

Since 1912 the Girl Scout slogan has been “do a good turn daily” and if you totaled up the acts of service inspired by those words we are confident the final count would be in the millions. As Mahatma Gandhi says “the best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others” and to encourage the servant’s heart in every girl we are hosting a council-wide weekend of service. Join us on October 10-12, 2014 for the first The Girl Scout Way: Take Action Weekend and help make a difference in your community! For younger troops this can be a great first step toward exploring their community and really learning about all of its needs and the organizations and individuals that work hard to meet those needs. Utilize the Take Action Planning List to ensure the girls are engaging in high-quality planning and really getting the most out of the experience. Talk to them about who they think needs help or what kind of service they would like to give that weekend and brainstorm places that might need volunteers such as the local parks department, a food bank, community garden, soup kitchen, or the animal shelter. Then, let the girls actually contact that organization, too, so that they really own that volunteering opportunity. Projects can be as simple or as elaborate as your troop has time and energy for; just don’t forget to Register Your Project and order your t-shirt by Friday September 19th, 2014 so that we can really measure the impact of this weekend as a council.

Community service is heavily integrated into the Girl Scout Leadership Experience but there are different types of service. Every Girl Scout Journey culminates in a Take Action project and the Bronze, Silver, and Gold Awards projects combines leadership with Take Action to create a community resource that showcases the leadership skills of the girls who earn the awards. What’s the difference between community service and a Take Action project? We’re so glad you asked. We’re devoting the next few blog posts to exploring this important topic. If your troop plans to work on a Journey Take Action project or one of our highest awards in the near future, stay tuned so you can help guide your girls through that process and they can come out on the other side with a quality project.