Girl Scout Traditions: Girl Scout Week is Coming!

We’re kicking off Girl Scout week here in Western Ohio. We know what you’re thinking…isn’t every week Girl Scout week? Well yes, but everyone loves an extra reason to celebrate. Every year girls, alumnae, and volunteers across the nation celebrate a week in March, starting with Girl Scout Sunday and ending with Girl Scout Sabbath on Saturday that always includes March 12, the day when Juliette Gordon Low officially registered the first 18 girl members in 1912.

To help you plan your celebration we’ve revisiting last year’s post 10 Ways to Celebrate Girl Scout Week! Need more? Here are some more awesome ideas to make your Girl Scout week celebration the best yet!

• Create a “Birthday Party in a Bag” and present it to a local shelter.
• Contact the Activity Director at a local senior citizen home and offer to plan and put on the March birthday party for residents.
• Plant a tree or beautify an area in honor of Girl Scout Birthday Week.
• Serve at your place of worship: be the greeter, usher or do a flag ceremony.
• Do something nice for someone else. Pass out smiley face stickers. Grab a trash bag and clean up the environment around your home or troop meeting site. A great excuse to get outside and enjoy the non-below zero temperatures!
• Follow the ideas planned out by Girl Scouts of North Carolina Coastal Pines! These are awesome.
• Make or do 103 somethings! This year marks Girl Scouts’ 103rd birthday- why not blow out 103 candles (maybe not all at once though- fire hazard!) or recruit friends and family to send 103 “thank you for your service” cards to soldiers overseas?

The possibilities are endless. Start planning your Girl Scout week celebration now!

Who Wants an Award from the President?

President John F. Kennedy famously said “One person can make a difference, and everyone  should try.” For over 100 years Girl Scouts across the nation have been making a difference by serving others, be it the girl in the next tent, the park down the street, or the community at large. Now you can be recognized for that service through The President’s Volunteer Service Award.

Never heard of it? The award recognizes, celebrates and inspires community service leaders and volunteers to take positive action that changes the world. Americans of all ages – from youth (5 years) to adults– are invited to participate and be recognized by our nation’s president for being active citizens.

What are the requirements? Citizens must have achieved the required number of hours of service over a 12-month time period or cumulative hours over the course of a lifetime. Families and groups can also earn the award together. Click here for more detailed information about the criteria, requirements, and a chart of award types and hourly requirements.

As a certifying organization Girl Scouts of Western Ohio gave out 10 awards for a total of 934 service hours in 2014 and 6 awards for a total of 676 service hours in 2013. That represents only a tiny microcosm of all of girls, volunteers, and service hours our members give to their communities each year and we’d love to recognize more of our members in 2015.

On this President’s Day let’s celebrate the vital role individual volunteers play in making a difference, and remember as Ronald Reagan said “no matter how big and powerful government gets, and the many services it provides, it can never take the place of volunteers.” Check out these Volunteer Stories to hear in their own words how their volunteer activities changed not only the lives of others, but theirs as well and get inspired to begin your own volunteer story. If anyone from our council is interested in earning the award, contact Elizabeth Vessell, Program & Partnerships Team Leader, Cincinnati at ElizabethVessell@GSWO.ORG for more information.

 

 

Thinking Outside the Cookie Box: 4 Non-Traditional Booth Locations

Booth sales are coming and if you’re looking for some non-traditional location ideas that have paid off for our troops, here are some outside the box ideas we’ve collected over the years from creative girls and their leaders. Sometimes choosing the road (or booth location) less traveled can make all the difference!

 1. If there are people there, put a booth there! 

Great places to sell cookies are anyplace there are a lot of people – outside church services, at school sporting events, craft or garden shows, events at local fairgrounds, retirement or assisted living facilities, apartment/condo complexes, farmer’s markets, local civic organizations such as Elks, Eagles, VFW (also great places to ask for Operation Cookie donations).  Even a small business can be a great location if it’s located in a high traffic area.  Be creative.  Get the girls involved in the brain-storming.

2. Decorate Your Car!

A Got Cookies? We Do! sign on a car window can be a great way to drum up sales. One leader sold whole cases out of her mini-van on her way home from a cookie booth because she stopped for gas at a popular truck stop and drivers saw the sign. She sold more in 10 minutes at that location than their entire 2 hour cookie booth.

3. Host a Garage Booth!

An enterprising troop hosted a pop up booth in the leader’s driveway/garage. The girls went around the neighborhood the week before and hung door hangers with the day and time of their booth encouraging people to stop and buy. They provided hot cocoa and music to their neighbors who came by to get their cookie fix.

4. Drive-Through Cookie Booth: Toledo Style!

Find a busy area that has a parking lot with easy access, making sure to get permission from the business in the area of the parking lot first. Put up a pop up tent, table and tons of decorations and put signs by the road or girls in cookie costumes. Customers drive in the parking lot and up to the tent where girls sell the cookies to these customers and the customers exit the parking lot. Watch the video below from Little Brownie Bakers to see how a troop in Akron OH put this idea into action.

Have another outside the box booth idea? Send it to your region’s product sales manager and we’ll share it out. Let’s make this an awesome year for booth sales!

Outdoor Explorers for 2015!

Do you enjoy activities like outdoor cooking, tent camping, horseback riding, or archery? How about all of the above? You’re not alone and soon you’ll be able to earn a badge for them too! The votes have been tallied and our girls and adults have chosen Outdoor Explorer as the newest selection for outdoor badges. Thank you to those who encouraged girls to vote for making sure their voices were heard and ensuring that Girls Know Best and #girlschoose were more than just excellent marketing slogans. Curious about the other options and how votes were tallied? Check out the process here.

Each badge will have five steps and three choices per step and although it’s a long process to write badges, we know that GSUSA is up to the task and will make sure that they are girl approved! So keep your eyes on March 12 when final badge activities will be announced on the  Girl Scouts of the USA facebook, the Girl Scout Blog or here at our blog. Then in fall 2015 the new badges will be available and girls can start exploring the outdoors and earning these new badges. We hope you’ll agree when we say, we just can’t wait to find out our new badge activities!