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!

CAMPING FUN!

For much of the year our Girl Scouts talked about wanting to have a "Camping" experience with all it's fun and Girl Scout traditions. With that in mind, the leaders got together and decided to make a special time for the girls with a Camping/Slumber Party at the school as an end of the year treat. We had a great time and will do our best to make this an annual troop event!

DAISY GIRLS

BROWNIE GIRLS

JUNIOR GIRLS

Our "Camping Fun" included:

(Click on separate links below for more details)-

• Setting up tents in the school gym for the girls to sleep in.
• Making "Sit Upons" (a Girl Scout Tradition!)
• Ordering pizza for dinner
• Making SWAPS (a Girl Scout Tradition!)
• Learning "Camp Fire Safety" (a Girl Scout Tradition!)
• Building a Campfire (a Girl Scout Tradition!)
• Singing and Sharing Campfire Songs & Stories (a Girl Scout Tradition!)
• Making S'Mores (a Girl Scout Tradition!)
• Lights Out at 10:30 PM... (Yeah, Right!)
• Rise and shine... Breakfast time!... Zipper Bag Omelets!
• Games
• A number of Girl Scout mom's and sisters helping out!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

BELOW~ 5 puffy eyed, exhausted, and beautiful leaders who would do it all over again for the sake of giving the girls a Girl Scouting Experience!

Garden Project Complete!

The fruit of the girls labor from the past several months...

Junior Girl Scouts getting the bench moved from the back of leader Teri's van...

Brownie Girls take the next leg of getting the bench to it's location...

Daisy Girls make their move to set the bench in it's final resting place.


The stepping stones and bench were the girl's idea. They earned almost $1,000. profit on this year's Girl Scout Cookie Sales and wanted to use part of their proceeds to create a special garden in memory of our Superintendent, Mr. McMath, who changed addresses from earth to heaven in December 2009. This garden space is the girl's way to say "thank you" to Mr. McMath as well to honor all who are a part of the London family.


We sprinkled "forget-me-not" seeds around the bench in honor of Mr. McMath.

LONDON
GIRL SCOUTS ROCK!!!

World Thinking Day 2010

... "together we can end extreme poverty and hunger" is the theme of this year's World Thinking Day 2010. Girl Scout Troop 9691 made "Blessing Boxes" at our last troop meeting to take home for their World Thinking Day project. We asked our Girl Scout families to give up “a treat” of some sort each day and save $1.00 a day for two weeks in their “blessing box” OR to collect “loose CHANGE” over the next two week period to help make a positive “CHANGE”. All donated money from this project will be sent to UNICEF (Children’s Emergency Fund in Haiti) to help make a difference in their extreme poverty and hunger situation.

The girls brought their boxes to this week's meeting and we collectively combined all amounts collected in the middle of the table where each Girl Scout level was sitting and participated in counting the loose change. The Daisy girls counted their collected amount together, the Brownie girls counted theirs, and the Junior girls counted their amounts.

All our girls have big generous hearts and we as parents should be very proud of each one of them for their efforts on this service project.

An inspiration~ Daisy Girl Scout, Allyson B. (in Kindergarden), actually went into her neighborhood over the two weeks we were doing our project and earned her Blessing Box donation by feeding neighbors' pets for them. Allyson earned just over $7.00 and her parents matched her amount to reward her for her hard work and to help a good cause. What a blessing you are, Allyson... ALL OUR GIRLS did a great job and ARE such BLESSINGS!!!

In a combined effort, we collected a total of $285.18!!!

(this amount updated March 16, 2010)

The girls earned their World Thinking Day 2010 Patch for all their work, but more importantly, the girls made a difference in others' lives.

Is there any other inspirational stories about how this World Thinking Day project effected your Girl Scout? Feel free to leave your comment and share with us!

Cookie Selling Underway!

We are so excited to have each of you Girl Scouts set your goals and work to achieve those goals.

Have fun, do your best, and encourage each other.

Remember: Pre-Orders begin January 9 through January 22.

Cookie Club is been a fun tool to motivate and generate excitement towards setting and reaching your goals. If you haven't already, please get your Girl ID and Password from your leader and check it out! We are given such an opportunity to grow in so many different ways though Cookie Selling. Be encouraged that the part you play makes a difference in our Girl Scout council, our community, our troop, and in you!

This year we have a line up of patches that can be earned for different aspects of your performance.

Here are the patches and their requirements:

PARTICIPATION PATCH

Girl who sells at least 12 packages.

GIFT OF CARING PATCH

Troop must donate at least two cases (24 packages) of cookies.

SUPER PATCH

Every girl who has a pre-order of at least 225 packages.

BOOTH SALES PATCH

Every Girl who participates in one or more booth sale.

GOAL ACHIEVER

Every girl who sells 225 packages or more.

RALLY PATCH

Every girl who particpates in a rally with either her service unit or troop.

I CALLED BACK PATCH

Every girl who calls back a customer on her order card for a 2nd order.

COOKIE CLUB PATCH

Every girl who signs up to join the Cookie Club.

Cookie Information for Parents

This Cookie Season, Girl Scouts across the country will be inspiring change. Girl Scouts will discover what matters most, connect with people in your community and use the power of Girl Scout Cookies to take action and make the world a better place.

As we prepare for the cookie sale season, please keep in mind that the purpose of the Girl Scout Cookie Sale is twofold: first it helps girls develop a wide range of skills such as leadership, entrepreneurship, money management, decision-making, planning, goal-setting, interpersonal skills, teamwork and many more. These skills are best learned when a girl is an active participant in all aspects of the sale.

The second purpose of the cookie sale is to generate revenue to support Girl Scouting in Greater South Texas and is also the main source of income for our troop. The sale funds programs and services throughout the year and insures that Girl Scouting will be available in the future.

Each Box of Girl Scout Cookies are $3.50. A case is sold for $42.00. Each case holds 12 boxes.

Money from the profits of sales;

• To our troop~ $.60 per box with awards.
  
• The balance of profits go to Girl Scouts of Greater South Texas to help all the Girl Scouts in our 26 county jurisdiction.

Troop Pre-order Taking Begins Saturday, January 9, 2010

Troop Pre-order Taking Ends Friday, January 22, 2010

It is not recommended to take any money during pre-order taking. Each Girl Scout and their parent is responsible for managing the money from the sales of their cookies. If any money is taken during pre-orders and is lost, the parent is responsible for reimbursement.

(Please have order forms from pre-orders to Teri NO LATER THAN Sunday, January 24)

COOKIE DELIVERIES February 13 to 18, 2010... Collect money due at this time.

DO NOT HOLD LARGE SUMS OF MONEY IN YOUR POSSESSION. THE TROOP IS RESPONSIBLE TO PAY FOR ALL COOKIES THEY RECEIVE. ENSURE YOUR COLLECTED MONEY IS KEPT SAFE AND TURNED IN TO YOUR COOKIE MANAGER (TERI). IN A TIMELY MANNER.

All Girl Scouts who want to participate in earning a patch/es for 2010 Cookie Season MUST have a parent complete a parent agreement form and returned back to Teri Wymore by Wed January 6. Girls who do not have a parent agreement form in by Jan. 6, may not be able to participate in Cookie Sales.

Girl Scouts MAY use the internet to send emails to people they know giving them information that our troop is selling cookies and your Girl Scout was interested if they would like to make an order. Text Messaging, myspace, or Facebook may also be used to get the word out and make sales contacts. However, selling cookies ON the internet is prohibited (ie: eBay, Craiglist, etc).

"Gift of Caring"~ For various reasons, some customers do not want to buy cookies for themselves. With Gift of Caring, they have a chance to give to others while supporting Girl Scouting at the same time. The girls will be donating our "Gift of Caring" to Military personnel serving oversees, to the Ronald McDonald House, and to the Corpus Christi Food Bank.

Direct / Booth Sales Begin February 20, 2010 and Ends March 7, 2010 (more information will be sent at a later time regarding booth sales)

For more information on:

• Cookie Safety... (Click Here)
• SELLING TIPS... (Click Here)
• Five Steps of Cookie Success... (Click Here)
• How your family can be involved... (Click Here)
• "Gift of Caring"... (Click Here)
• "COOKIE CLUB" (with parental permission only)... (Click Here)
• Fun Activity Kit Downloads per Girl Scout level... (Click Here)
• What cookies are available this year... (Click here)
• Cookie Locator... (Click Here)
• Girl Scout Cookies FAQs... (Click Here)

Overflowing Generosity

This week's troop meeting was kicked off with snack, opening ceremony, then our service project of "Operation Christmas Child". The girls brought a variety of gifts (from suggested list) to fill individual shoe boxes. Our objective was to fill one box per Girl Scout level:

Daisies filled a box for a girl, age 2-4
Brownies filled a box for a girl, age 5-9
Juniors filled a box for a girl, age 10-14

The generosity of our girl scout troop and their families surpassed expectations. Donations brought by the girls filled a total of 10 shoe boxes !!! These 10 boxes will bless 10 different girls around the world at Christmas. We are proud of each of our girls and their giving hearts to make a difference in another child's life through this act of care and kindness.

Daisy Girls!

Brownies!

Juniors!

GIRL SCOUTS ROCK!

We filled 5 boxes at our troop meeting and with the overflow, 5 more were filled at troop leader, Teri's house.

...getting the boxes wrapped to make each gift special for the special girl who will receive it.
(lids have to be wrapped separate, able to lift open easily).

Ella's mom, Amy, will do the "drop off" of these boxes for our troop at her church. Once we get the tracking numbers for each box, we will add them to this post so you may follow the gift if you choose. Check back soon for tracking numbers.

Tracking Numbers: (We were unable to be obtain individual tracking numbers because the 7 boxes were paid for in one bank card transaction)
Daisies filled a box together for a girl, age 2-4
Extra box filled for a girl, age 2-4

Brownies filled a box together for a girl, age 5-9
Abby's extra box filled for a girl, age 5-9
Extra box filled for a girl, age 5-9
Extra box filled for a girl, age 5-9

Juniors filled a box together for a girl, age 10-14
Juniors filled a second box together for a girl, age 10-14
Extra box filled for a girl, age 10-14
Extra box filled for a girl, age 10-14

Thanksgiving Fun with Food

After "Operation Christmas Child", we worked on a "Make It and Eat It" project to earn a patch in honor of the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday. We made two yummy recipes~ Pilgrim Hats and Thanksgiving Cookie Turkeys. They are easy to make, & fun to "gobble, gobble" up!

A SPECIAL THANK YOU TO ALL THE CO-LEADERS AND MOM'S WHO HELPED MAKE THIS TROOP MEETING A SUCCESS~ YOU ARE TRULY APPRECIATED!

Pilgrim Hats
Ingredients:
1 cup vanilla frosting
7 drops yellow food coloring
32 miniature peanut butter cups
1 package (11-1/2 ounces) fudge-striped cookies
32 pieces orange mini Chiclets gum (We didn't have chicklet gum; we used the center of cany corn cut into small squares)

Directions:
In a small shallow bowl, combine frosting and food coloring. Remove paper liners from peanut butter cups.
Holding the bottom of a peanut butter cup, dip top of cup in yellow frosting. Position over center hole on the bottom of cookie, forming the hatband and crown. Add a buckle of Chiclets gum. Repeat with remaining cups and cookies. Yield: 32 cookies.

Thanksgiving Cookie Turkeys
Ingredients:
2 Double Stuff Oreos (Halloween ones or regular white)
Candy corn
Raisinettes
Plate

Directions:
Open one Oreo. The half that has the filling will be the base for your turkey to stand on. Eat the other piece, if desired. Place the other Oreo on the filling standing upright. This is your turkey body. Carefully place five candy corns into the filling on the upright Oreo. These are the feathers. Place a Raisinette in front of the turkey body. This is the head. Place on your table as a decoration, or gobble it right up!

We closed our troop meeting with a recap of our activities. and discussed what we'll be doing at our next troop meeting. The girls gathered in their "friendship circle" by level to end the day...

GIRL SCOUTS ROCK!