Friday, November 19, 2010

OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD

Our Girl Scouts never fail to overflow their generous hearts to bless others in need. This is our second year participating in Operation Christmas Child (OCC) as a troop service project. But when we really think about it, participating in OCC really goes beyond "service" for our girls. Operation Christmas Child is a mission to help fulfill their desire to help other other children and make the world a better place. OCC brings joy and the message of Christmas to children in 130 different countries who are in poverty situations.

For this troop meeting we began with our OCC project. The girls collectively brought items to donate to a variety of shoe boxes for boys and girls ranging in ages 2-14 years old. (see THIS POST for the details).


This year, we filled a total of 17 boxes!!! Here is the break down of what the girl filled~

Girl Boxes (12 total):
age 2-4 = Four (4) Boxes
age 5-9 = Two (2) Boxes
age 10-14= Six (6) Boxes

Boy Boxes (5 total):
age 2-4 = One (1) Box
age 5-9 = Two (2) Boxes
age 10-14 = Two (2) Boxes


THANK YOU PARENT AND LEADER VOLUNTEERS!!! You're help was HUGE!
~Lisa ~Novia ~Kristi ~Tammy ~Noemi ~Mandy ~Holly ~Stephanie ~Irma ~Rae Marie ~Jessica

And, THANK YOU, NOEMI for bringing the SNACK and DRINK this week!

Getting everything fit into the boxes was like putting a puzzle together!


...each item placed in the boxes with love...




Once the girls got the boxes filled by gender and age, the group gathered around the table of gifts in a circle, held hands hands with each other, while an adult led the girls in a word of prayer over the boxes~

"Thank you God for this opportunity to help make a difference in the lives of other children all over the world and help make the world a better place!

Christmas is a time to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ… it’s a time to honor His birthday. And as we all know, when it’s someone’s “Birthday”, it is a tradition to give them gifts. Today we come together as a Girl Scout troop to give Jesus a birthday gift. We are participating in Operation Christmas Child to give these gifts with joy, love, and a spirit of goodness. The children receiving these gifts, are receiving them in honor of Christmas, Jesus’ Birthday. When Jesus was alive, He told his friends “when you give to the poor, give to the hungry, give to people in need, it’s the same as giving to me” (paraphrased from Matthew 25:40) May each gift we send be a blessing to each child receiving them and may these little ones who receive these gifts experience the true spirit of Christmas this year and always! May God bless them and their families. In Jesus’ name we pray… AND EVERY ONE SAY~ AMEN.”



Troop #9691,
YOU ROCK!!!




Since she missed the troop meeting, leader, Teri, double checked the boxes at her house to make sure all the soap bars and hard candy were placed in individual zip-lock bags before we turned them in to OCC.

The Daisy girls made cards at a previous troop meeting for the children (only two examples are shown)



...and a picture of the troop (above) was also included.

Labels were printed with a bar code for tracking; they were secured with shipping tape on each of the 17 boxes.

Sometime in the month of January, we will find out what countries our 17 boxes were sent to.

When I phoned OCC to inquire about how we properly "follow our boxes"(because last year we never found out where they went), the lady I talked to was real sweet. She was able to look it up and I was informed that last year, ALL 10 of our boxes were sent to Mexico and blessed children in our neighboring country~ apparently an email was probably sent, and I now suspect it ended up in my spam folder. This year I'll watch for the email since I know to expect it!

http://www.samaritanspurse.org/index.php/OCC/Mexico/

Thank you Girl Scout families for your support with this project!

The girls are learning some important life lessons through OCC project! Ask your Girl Scout what they learned. Let them know how proud you are of them for their commitment to making the world a better place in all they do through Girl Scouts.

COURT OF AWARDS

The girls have had fun with Girl Scouts and have worked to earn a variety of patches over the past 3 months. The following awards were given to the girls who participated in the events and projects.

Daisy Girls AWARDS~
Center Patch Blue Patch (for learning the Girl Scout Promise)
Light Blue Petal (lessons on being “Honest and Fair”)
Yellow Petal (lessons on being “Friendly and Helpful”)

FUN PATCHES~
either an “Early Bird” or “ON TIME” (for meeting GS registration deadline of either late July or 9-13)
Halloween (for Halloween crafts)
Troop Giving (for participating in our Troop Food Drive to help with the West side Food Pantry– who, by the way is working with the Food Bank of Corpus Christi)
Operation Christmas Child (for participating in OCC today)

Brownie Girls AWARDS~ The girls earned three Try-It’s:
"Citizen Near and Far"; “Science in Action”; and “Art to Wear”

FUN PATCHES~
either an “Early Bird” or “ON TIME” (for meeting GS registration by deadline of either late July or 9-13)
Halloween (for Halloween crafts)
Troop Giving (for participating in our Troop Food Drive to help with the West side Food Pantry– Operation Christmas Child (for participating in OCC today)

Junior Girls AWARDS~ the girls earned two badges~
“Prints and Graphics” Badge and the “World Neighbors” Badge (round one with flags on it)

FUN PATCHES~
either an “Early Bird” or “ON TIME” (for meeting GS registration by deadline of either late July or 9-13)
Halloween (for Halloween crafts)
Troop Giving (for participating in our Troop Food Drive to help with the West side Food Pantry– Operation Christmas Child (for participating in OCC today)

Our "Troop Giving" project to the Food Pantry on the West side of Corpus Christi has blessed many people in need. Each girl who participated demonstrated generosity and really helped make a difference in the lives of others in our community.

THANK YOU ALL! You received a Troop Giving patch for your participation!

Three Girl Scouts were recognized with "WAY TO GO" Fun Patches for being top givers in their level:
Allyson B. for Daisy (30 items)
Angela T. for Brownie (35 items)
Hailie H. for Junior (45 items)... Hailie also received a Girl Scout shoulder bag for being top giver.

ALL THE GIRLS DID A GREAT JOB WITH OUR FOOD DRIVE and hopefully in the spring we’ll have another opportunity to help the Food Pantry and actually go visit and talk to the lady in charge (Marta-below- pictured in the diaper and baby donation area).

Some of the Food Pantry shelves BEFORE our donations were added.

Need to know where and HOW to iron your Girl Scout Patches?

Go to THIS LINK~

Parent Cookie Meeting


Mark your Calendars
Tuesday, November 30, at 3:30 PM
in the School Cafeteria


Girl Scout Cookie selling time is right around the corner! It is important we have a “Parent Cookie Meeting” to share information about what to expect and to set some goals with our Girl Scouts. Please plan on attending this information meeting with your Girl Scout (The meeting should only last 30-45 minutes).

For those of you who had a Girl Scout last year in the troop, there have been some changes to how Girl Scouts of Greater South Texas is selling cookie this year, so this meeting is going to be a benefit to you as well.

If you are unable to attend this meeting, we will do our best to get the information to you in a prompt manner. Feel free to contact your GS leader & cookie manager with any questions, comments, or concerns~ Teri

Here’s an overview of our important “Cookie Dates”:
Dec. 1-13~ Cookie Manager orders cookies to sell (this is our entire troop order)
Jan 11-15~ Troop receives their entire cookie order sometime in this time frame.
Jan 16 (Sunday)~ Girls can begin selling on their own- either taking orders or direct sales prior to city wide booth sales.
Jan 21 (Friday)~ Booth sales begin (all throughout Corpus Christi and South Texas)
Feb 27 (Sunday)~ Booth sales end.
Feb 28 (Monday)~ Girl Scout cookie money due to troop cookie manager (Teri).
March 1~ Troop must turn in cookie money to service unit.

Friday, November 5, 2010

WOW... It's November!

Our month has "Service" as a focus. After a wonderful snack (provided by Girl Scout Mom, Cynthia), we opened our troop meeting with the Girl Scout Promise and talked about how awesome it is that so many young ladies in our Girl Scout troop stepped up and gave to the food donation (over the past two troop meetings) to benefit a Food Pantry through Bay Area Fellowship on the West-side of our city to help our neighbors less fortunate. Collectively, the girls collected 310 cans, boxed goods, and non-perishable foods. The girls all pitching in what they could, from 5 cans up to 30 & 45, the combined amount is helping others and making a huge difference for the food pantry.

Good job girls!

The girls broke into their levels to work on their projects~ (click each level below to view what the girls did)

"Thank you", Cynthia for the snack this week...

" Thank you" parents for all your support in our "Troop Giving" efforts...

and a special "Thank you" to Sergeant Brad Pici and Sergeant Roger Arevalo for speaking to the Brownie and Daisy levels about their service as a Police Officer and a how the girls can be "Good Citizens".

BROWNIE~
Citizen Near and Far

The Brownie girls worked on a new Try-it today~ "Citizen Near and Far". To earn this patch, the girls listened to Sergeant Brad Pici and Sergeant Roger Arevalo of the City Police Department. The Daisy girls joined the Brownies for the information (which will help them earn a new pedal).



The Police Officers shared with the girls what they're jobs entailed, what all the equipment around their waist is and the thinking process they go through when confronting person that may be breaking the law; they emphasized that working things out with their words before anything else is what they try to do, but if necessary, they do have other means of working things out (like handcuffs, tazor, and last resort- a gun).


The girls had a lot of questions and many comments as the police shared how they each can be "Good Citizens".

Officers Pici and Arevalo left the girls with some color/activity books, crayons, cool pencils and wrist bands to take home to remember all they learned about being "Good Citizens".

After the officers were done speaking, the Brownie level proceeded to work on the craft project for the day: a safety pin and bead flag.


Kit ordered from Oriental Trading Company


Leaders, Lisa, Novia and Kristi had everything ready and set for the girls.


VERY COOL!
These neat flags will go on each girls' SWAP cap.
Thanks Leaders and Volunteers for all your help with the awesome troop meeting!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

Operation Christmas Child~
Troop Service Project

Last year our troop participated in Operation Christmas Child (OCC) for the first time. The girls' hearts were positively touched by this project as they thought about the different children that would be receiving the Christmas gift boxes they prepared. (Check out THIS BLOG POST for last year's OCC project)

When we began this year's troop goal setting in July, almost every returning Girl Scout remarked they would like to participate in Operation Christmas Child again. We learned a lot from our first time participating last year and hope to actually get the "tracking" (done right this year) for each package we send. We will also include a picture of the Girl Scout Troop with a special note to the child receiving the gift.

Please take time to view the short videos at the end of this post with your Girl Scout to get an idea what type of items to help your Girl Scout purchase (you may also refer to the information sheet your Girl Scout brought home from the meeting). The below videos will also help you know what we'll be doing at our next troop meeting mid-month (prior to awards) to earn our "Operation Christmas Child 2010" Patch. (below)

WHAT YOUR GIRL SCOUT NEEDS TO DO:

  • Choose 2-5 items appropriate for the gender and age of the child your daughter drew from the basket at the troop meeting (ex: BOY 2-4 years old).
  • Purchase your gift items in the next couple weeks. The Dollar Store is a great place to find fun, affordable gifts. WE ARE NOT ASKING YOU TO FILL AN ENTIRE BOX... JUST BRING A FEW ITEMS TO DONATE.
  • Bring gift items to next troop meeting mid-month.

That's all~ easy as that! As a troop, we will do the rest. The girls will COLLECTIVELY COMBINE their items in shoe boxes to fill a gift box for the gender and age group designated. Our goal is to fill at least one box per gender and age category. GIRLS age groups 2-4, 5-9, and 10-14; BOYS age groups 2-4, 5-9, and 10-14.






If you have any questions about Operation Christmas Child, feel free to contact Troop leader Teri. You may also visit The Samaritans Purse website for more information.