Honoring Our Veterans-Girl Scout Style!

“Honor to the soldier and sailor everywhere, who bravely bears his country’s cause. Honor, also, to the citizen who cares for his brother in the field and serves, as he best can, the same cause.”― Abraham Lincoln

On Memorial Day we remember and honor the men and women who have died while serving in our armed forces. Girl Scouts around the country celebrate Memorial Day by placing flags at veterans’ cemeteries, visiting veterans’ hospitals, participating in parades, decorating banners, holding flag ceremonies, and more. Troops draw posters and write cards of thanks to send to active duty soldiers, veterans’ homes and VA (Veterans Affairs) medical centers as well as sending cases of cookies overseas every year to give our soldiers a small taste of home in thanks for their service. To add to our organization’s proud history of honoring our armed forces and help girls understand the resources places like the VA offer to their communities we established Girl Scout Day at the Dayton VA. So what does the VA do and what happens at this annual event? So glad you asked!

The Dayton VA was authorized in 1865 by President Abraham Lincoln as the first-ever national soldiers’ and sailors’ asylum to provide medical and convalescent care for discharged members of the Union Army and Navy volunteer forces in Dayton Ohio. 150 years later, Dayton VA still serves our soldiers through a variety of services all housed on the west Dayton property.  It was here that the Second Annual Girl Scout Day at the Dayton VA took place.

Over 40 Girl Scout Junior and Cadettes attended this event on Saturday, April 7.  The day started at the Dayton VA Medical Center’s state of the art Simulation Lab.  It was there girls got a snap shot in medical services and practices by learning CPR, First Aid, proper hand washing techniques and general patient care.  Additionally the girls got to see how robots are being used in the medical field among other activities. In the afternoon the girls switched through four activity sessionsincluding planting trees with the OSU Extension Master Gardeners, researching genealogy with volunteer Carolyn Barns, touring the facilities and learning VA History at Putnam Library.

The girls left with a better knowledge of all the VA has to offer, the history behind it, and a deeper appreciation for all that our veterans have done and are currently doing for our country.

On this Memorial Day it is important to express our gratitude for the sacrifices members of the military have made and we know that the girls who attended the Dayton VA event, and Girl Scouts across the nation, will  be doing just that!

Your Newest Time Saver-The Volunteer Toolkit

GSUSA and Western Ohio have launched The Girl Scout Volunteer Toolkit (VTK) which is a comprehensive digital tool accessible on your computer, smartphone and/or tablet that is the primary support resource for troop leaders who work with K–5th grade troops. For those volunteers, this resource will replace the adult leaders guide for Journeys and the Girl’s Guide to Girl Scouting. What does that mean in people talk? It means that we have a new resource with a trans-formative purpose: to save our volunteers precious time and frustration so you can spend less time navigating our many available resources as you plan, organize, and manage your troop year with the girls and more time doing the things that you imagined when you volunteered: changing girls’ lives through amazing experiences!

Here are a few frequently asked questions about the toolkit and our answers:

What will I find in the Volunteer Toolkit (VTK)? You will find the five tabs below to help make managing your troop more simple.

• My Troop: This tab allows you to manage your troop contacts, renew membership, and communicate with parents. This feature will be live by fall 2015.
• Year Plan: This tab allows you to broadly manage your troop year based on what girls want to do. When you log into VTK for the first time, you will see three year plan options for your girls to choose from including one Girl Scout Badge year and two Girl Scout Journey year plans based on the It’s Your Story−Tell It Journey and the It’s Your Planet−Love It Journey. The first two meetings of each of these year plans will help you decide, in partnership with the girls, which of the three year plans they would like to use based on their interests.
• Meeting Plan: This tab will also allow you to set your meeting calendar including meeting locations, date and time. In this tab, you will view meeting details including activity descriptions, meeting aids, materials lists, and more.
• Resources: Here you can also customize activities, delete activities that your girls wouldn’t enjoy and replace them with new activities. You can easily create your own activity or replace it with an activity from within the toolkit. Here you can find additional resources to support the activities that your girls choose to do. Here you will find the Safety Activity Checkpoints, all meeting aids, and other helpful resources. You can easily add the meeting aids to a specific meeting in your year plan.
• Finances: The finances tab will allow you to submit your troop financial report to the council and share it with parents. You will still have to submit your troop bank statement to the council if you do not bank at one of the preferred banks. (PNC or 5/3 Bank). This feature will be live by fall 2015.

How do I access the Volunteer Toolkit? Starting May 1, 2015, when you visit our website, you will see a My GS tab. You will enter your login credentials there to gain access to the Volunteer Toolkit. The VTK integrates right into the council website to allow the leader to seamlessly go back and forth between the website and the VTK.

Will there be training on how to use the Volunteer Toolkit? The toolkit is designed to be intuitive and require no formal training, however, video tutorials will continue to be made available via a YouTube link that will live on the GSUSA National YouTube page. Check out the Volunteer Toolkit Tutorial playlist below.

Will all troop leadership have access to the toolkit? Direct primary volunteers for K–5 troops will have access to the toolkit (Leader and Co-Leader). In future releases, the VTK will grow its user audiences to other Secondary Primary troop volunteer roles such as Troop Cookie volunteers. Parents will also be able to view some information in the Volunteer Toolkit in future releases.

Why is the Toolkit only for K-5 troops (updated with new information 8/4/5)? Going digital is a new direction for our national organization. In order to use our resources wisely, we had to narrow our focus as a starting point. That doesn’t mean that we care more about younger girls than older girls. Older girls are very important to us! In early September, older girl direct primary volunteers will have access to the My Troop, Resources, and Finances tabs. They will not have Journey, Girls Guide, or year plan content available, but they will get to “Create Your Own” year plan. We look forward to offering additional updates as soon as they are available.

What if I don’t have internet access at my meeting place? How will I access program materials? You can easily download the materials to your device or print them to take to your meeting. Also, the VTK can be accessed on a tablet or smart phone, which may expand where it can be used.

What about volunteers who don’t have internet access at home? The toolkit is not an app so that means that it can be accessed from any computer or device. Libraries are a great resource for volunteers who don’t have access to the internet at home. They can print meeting plans or download them to their personal computer or drive.

Why has Girl Scouting decided to go digital? We have heard about all of the hours that Girl Scout volunteers spend supporting troops. VTK is designed to help cut down the amount of time it takes for a volunteer to manage their troop including planning meetings (in partnership with the girls), communicating with parents, and finding support resources. The VTK puts all of this at their fingertips by having a central location for all of their Girl Scout “stuff.” Now volunteers can easily find resources, access the website, and communicate with parents all in one spot.

So are you as excited as we are to start using this new resource? Let’s make the 2015-2016 troop year a year for you to take back some time, finish a long standing project, spend an afternoon blowing bubbles with that special girl in your life. Thanks to the Toolkit you can finally do that thing you always wanted to do if you just had a few more free hours in your week!

New National Parks Girl Scout Ranger Program

Just in time for Great Outdoors Month (June), Girl Scouts of the USA has announced a Girl Scout Ranger Program in partnership with the National Park Service! “The National Park Service and Girl Scouts of the USA have the same goal in mind: providing meaningful and memorable experiences for girls through unique outdoor experiences,” said Peggy O’Dell, National Park Service deputy director. “Through this partnership, girls will be introduced to the many ways they can play, learn, serve, and work in our national parks. We are committed to connecting our nation’s cultural and national treasures with today’s youth—so go ‘Find Your Park’!” 

According to the Girl Scout Blog “through the program, girls can participate in a variety of organized educational or outdoor service projects. Additionally, Girl Scouts may design their own project that aligns with their Girl Scout Journey experience, various badge activities, or a Take Action (“highest award”) project. Girls who successfully complete projects will be awarded certificates from the National Park Service and Girl Scout patches.”

Girls and troops who wish to participate in the Girl Scout Ranger Program can visit the National Park Service website to locate a park (“Find Your Park”) near their home and complete the 5 steps to the Girl Scout Ranger Program. There, they can also explore the history of the park and learn about its natural and cultural resources. Troop leaders and parents can arrange for activities like hiking, biking, wildlife watching, and guided interpretive tours, and the Girl Scout Ranger Program will also allow girls to build their own unique park experience, earning badges and patches along the way. Need more information? Check out these frequently asked questions about the program.

As June 13th is national “Get Outdoors Day” and June 27th celebrates all camping has to offer with the “National Wildlife Federation’s Great American Campout, the summer months are the perfect time to start! So what are you waiting for? Find your favorite park, explore a national monument, and become a Girl Scout Ranger!

Sneak Peak: Fall 2015 Program Events

Calling all adventurers: the school year may be winding down but it’s never too early to get excited about your NEXT Girl Scout adventure. Have you ever wanted to test your mettle against a friendly foe with a fencing foil? Find your dream job? Learn what to do when you swamp your canoe? This is your chance! We’ve got a wide array of program events ready to kick off another amazing year, Girl Scout style! Right now we’ve got a sneak peak of our fall program events on our Event Calendar. Find your favorite now and on June 3rd, 2015 when event registration opens on Ebiz to all members who early bird registered for the 2015-2016 membership year, grab your spot before its gone.

While there are too many programs at too many council properties to mention them all, here are 12 upcoming programs we’re excited to offer this fall:

• Intro to Canoeing: Juniors and Cadettes work on basic canoeing skills such as safety, getting in and out of the canoe, paddle strokes and more. September 20, 2015 at Camp Whip Poor Will, Morrow.
• The B.I.G. Event: The B.I.G. (Believe in Girls) Event will be an all day celebration that promotes everything that is cool about being a girl. There are hundreds of activity booths for all ages, exhibitors, vendors, programming areas and plenty of fun. Registration for this event opens on May 1, 2015! September 26, 2015 at Bowling Green State University.
• Sow What Journey Retreat: Jump start your year with the Senior Sow What Journey and be on your way to the Gold Award! Meet girls from across the Council and together ponder land use and global food issues. Spend the weekend earning components of the Sow What Journey and prepare a Take Action project. October 2-4, 2015 at Camp Whip Poor Will, Morrow. Cadettes and Ambassadors plan ahead for 2016 aMAZE and Bliss Journey Retreats at Camp Libbey (Cadette) and Rollings Hills (Ambassador).
• Program Aide Extravaganza: Join us Cadettes as we learn about upcoming Program Aide opportunities at council events and try out some of the activities from such as creating culinary masterpieces at our Chef programs, exploring engineering through team projects from Junior Inventor, and other fun activities. October 3, 2015 at Woodhaven Program Center, Lima.
• Father/Daughter Adventure Day: Come and join the fun as you explore the woods, create nature projects, learn outdoor skills, hone your slingshot skills and spend the whole day with that special man in your life. Bring your dad or another adult male role model to spend the day exploring all the activities together-all ages welcome! October 17, 2015 at Camp Whip Poor Will, Morrow.
• Target Sports Extreme: CSAs if you are ready to try something new, Target Sports Extreme is for you! Get a chance to chuck a tomahawk and shoot paintball slingshots at targets. Work with your team of warriors to win Camp Libbey’s fiercest target competition.  October 24, 2015 at Camp Libbey, Defiance.
• Adventuring with Maps Overnight: Brownies troops and up participating in an Adventuring with Maps session on either Saturday or Sunday have the option to spend the night in Ittmann Lodge at Camp Stonybrook.  November 7, 2015 at Camp Stonybrook, Waynesville.
• Junior Inventor: Join us as we explore the world of engineering where girls will work together as a team to create the perfect bubble solution, wand, and a mini-commercial to market their product, then build a coaster car that uses gravity to propel it across the floor as they explore what it’s like to be a product designer.  November 7, 2015 at Woodhaven Program Center, Lima.
• A Taste of Fencing: CSAs this is your chance to experience the sport of fencing. Suit up and you’re ready for some footwork and hand technique: on-guard position, advance, retreat, lunge and parry – and soon you’ll know what to do when you hear the words “En garde”! November 14, 2015 at Woodhaven Program Center, Lima.
• Dream Jobs: Juniors and Cadettes get a glimpse of some of the exciting careers paths you can choose in life through this workshop on November 14, 2015 at Lourdes University, Sylvania. Join with college professors and students to do hands-on activities in the planetarium, run tests in the nursing lab, perform water experiments in the Learning Lab, and more.
• Kappa Delta International Girls Day: Brownies and up, Kappa Delta Sorority invites you to an International Girls Day Celebration, designed to teach young girls the importance of having confidence. The celebration recognizes the spirit of girls and encourages girls to make their dreams a reality. November 21, 2015 at the Girl Scout Center, Dayton or November 14, 2015 at the University of Cincinnati.

These are just a small taste of the many wonderful and sometimes wacky program events that are available this fall. Further information about all of the program events we offer can be found in the Program Event Guide available at fall Kick-Off events and at fall Service Unit meetings. Don’t miss out, register for fall events on June 3, 2015. Then don’t forget to mark your calendar for November 2015 when registration opens for winter and spring program events.