National Girl Scout Leaders Day

 Today is National Girl Scout Leaders Day!

Celebrate the day by thanking a volunteer in the Girl Scouts program.  You can share your experience as a Girl Scout leader or volunteer in the program.  

This would be a great opportunity for parents to have their daughter write a letter to their leader.  The leaders appreciate these letters and hold them dear.

This marks my 13th (and final) year as a Girl Scout Leader.  I am forever grateful to my troop, fellow co-leader, and wonderful parents.  To think back and remember how fearful I was taking this position, only to find that it has been one of the best experiences of my life.

To all of the Girl Scout Leaders, I send you a HUGE thank you.  You are truly an inspiration to the girls in your troop.

National Card and Letter Writing Month

 April is National Card and Letter Writing Month.  I talked about this in an earlier blog post (click here to check it out) and thought I would remind everyone again.

Why not take a few minutes and write some letters to friends and or family members and drop them in the mail?  People love getting happy mail!  I love handwritten letters!  That's the first thing I read when I get the mail!

Don't know what to write?  How about:

an uplifting message
a funny (happy) memory that you share with this person
Maybe a thank you for something

How about just saying hello?

This would be a great idea for your Girl Scouts.  Our Girl Scout Troop is making some cards for Seniors.  We have done this in the past and the Seniors love receiving cards and letters!  I have contacted the homes that we normally visit and have organized our card drop off with them.  This might be something you can have your troop work on at home.  If you want to take this a step further, maybe your troop would like to be pen pals with some seniors?  Check out this article on Becoming a Pen Pal to Seniors.  You can contact your local retirement community and see if they would be interested in having Girl Scout Pen Pals.  

So, grab some paper and a pen and start writing!

Valentine's Day Craft Ideas

 It's February!  Love month!  Hearts and all things red!

Valentine's Day is coming up and I thought I would put links to some Valentine's Day crafts we have done here on Scary Journey to get you ready for Valentine's Day. Some of these crafts are pretty easy and would be great to do with your Girl Scout Troop!

Valentine's Placemat (children't craft)

Valentine's Day Bookmarks

Pallet (he)art

Homemade Valentine's Day cards

Felt Heart Pin or Barrette

Valentine Photo Book

Valentine Love Picture

Valentine Love Frame

Silver Award Ceremony - Girl Scout Cadettes

Our girls have successfully earned their Girl Scout Silver Award.  They wanted to help and serve Seniors.  We worked on our award over the three years as Cadette Scouts.

Earning your Silver Award is a big deal in Girl Scouting and we wanted to mark it with a ceremony.  We have six girls in our Girl Scout Troop.  We held the ceremony in a park.  Due to COVID and Girl Scout rules, all meetings have to be outside and masks must be worn.  We asked each of the girls to say what they learned or enjoyed by earning this award.  

Here is our script for the ceremony:

Silver Award Ceremony

Flag

Promise 

Law

Leader:  Today, we are honoring (names of girls) for earning the highest award in Cadette Girl Scouting, the Girl Scout Silver Award.  The girls chose to help and serve Seniors for their project.  Each girl has achieved the high ideals and goals expressed by Juliette Gordon Lowe, who founded the Girl Scout movement in 1912.

Leader: (Girl's names) have served their country, community and God with their hard work and skills.  Here are some of the projects we have worked on during Cadette Scouts.

For our Girl Scout Silver Award, we made Made Valentine cards for Seniors.

For our Girl Scout Silver Award, we

.....

....

(Girls tell what they learned/enjoyed while earning this award)

Leader:  We are very proud of our girls and all of the hard work that they put into achieving this award.  Please join us in congratulating each girl as we present their award.

(Award Presentation)

Leader:  An award is a symbol of achievement.  It means that you have learned something and provided service to others.  With each new award, a Girl Scout takes on new responsibilities.  More is expected at home, in Girl Scouting and in your community.  Strive to be worthy of the symbols you wear and wear them with pride.  Best wishes to each of you!

Leader:  Each girl has decided to continue in scouting.  May we present to you the newest Girl Scout Seniors! 

(friendship squeeze)

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

A few notes:

We broke down the section of what we did to earn our award and gave each of the girls a portion to read aloud.  

We also asked the girls to write down (beforehand), on index cards, what they learned and or enjoyed while earning their Silver Award and had them read it aloud to their parents and families.

*due to COVID, we were unable to do the friendship squeeze

National Card and Letter Writing Month

April is National Card and Letter Writing Month.  I talked about this in an earlier blog post (click here to check it out) and thought I would remind everyone again.

We are stuck in quarantine for another two weeks, why not spend a few minutes and write some letters to friends and or family members and drop them in the mail?  People love getting happy mail!  I love handwritten letters!  That's the first thing I read when I get the mail!

Don't know what to write?  How about:

an uplifting message
a funny (happy) memory that you share with this person
what you have been doing during this quarantine
what you want to do when this quarantine is over

This would be a great idea for your Girl Scouts.  Our Girl Scout Troop is making some cards for Seniors.  Since we can't visit seniors during this time, we thought we would make some cards for them and drop them off at the retirement community.  I have contacted the homes that we normally visit and have organized our card drop off with them.  This might be something you can have your troop work on at home.  If you want to take this a step further, maybe your troop would like to be pen pals with some seniors?  Check out this article on Becoming a Pen Pal to Seniors.  You can contact your local retirement community and see if they would be interested in having Girl Scout Pen Pals.  Once the quarantine is over, the girls can visit their pen pals.

Don't tell me that you don't have any time.  I know you have plenty of free time!  So, grab some paper and a pen and start writing!