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!

Awards Ceremony

This week, the girls received their patches/badges earned over the past couple months for those who were in attendance at troop meetings and participated in the projects (Nov. 3- Feb 16). Several girls were not able to be at the awards ceremony (Allyson B, Bonnie, and Bethany) and will receive their awards during our next meeting troop.

Daisy Girls~

• Red Petal (representing "Strong & Courageous") for our "Sports Day" on Nov.3


• Rose Petal (representing "Make the world a better place") for combined projects- Operation Christmas Child; Planning Day for School Garden Project; World Thinking Day


• Light Green Petal (representing "Considerate and Caring") for combined projects- Mr. McMath Card; Operation Christmas Child; World Thinking Day


• Hot Pink (representing "Respect Authority") for combined projects, specifically when the Junior Girls led Sports Day, but also for their continued growth in listening and following the Troop Leaders.


• Christmas Crafts Fun Patch for Dec. 1 Girl Scout Craft party


• Service from the Heart Fun Patch for the girls having such a big heart for others- Mr. McMath Card; Operation Christmas Child; World Thinking Day.


• World Thinking Day 2010 Patch
  


• Brownie Girls~
  

  

• Make It Eat It Try It Patch for Armpit Fudge (early in the year), Thanksgiving Food Craft (Nov 17) & Christmas Food Craft (Dec. 1)


• Sports Try It Patch for Sports Day (Nov. 3)


• Christmas Crafts Fun Patch for Dec. 1 Girl Scout Craft party


• Service from the Heart Fun Patch for the girls having such a big heart for others- Mr. McMath Card; Operation Christmas Child; World Thinking Day.


• World Thinking Day 2010 Patch
  

Junior Girls~

• Make It Eat It/Cooking Badge for Armpit Fudge (early in the year), Thanksgiving Food Craft (Nov 17) & Christmas Food Craft (Dec. 1)


• Sports Badge Patch for Sports Day (Nov. 3)


• Christmas Crafts Fun Patch for Dec. 1 Girl Scout Craft party.


• Service from the Heart Fun Patch for the girls having such a big heart for others- Mr. McMath Card; Operation Christmas Child; World Thinking Day.


• World Thinking Day 2010 Patch

Petals, Try It's & Badges are placed on the front of your Girl Scout's Uniform. Fun Patches (Christmas, Service from the Heart, & World Thinking Day) are placed on the back sides of the uniform. Click Here for more info.

Farewell our dear Friend!

At the end of our awards, we said "Farewell" to one of our Brownie Girl Scouts who will be moving away next week and this was going to be her last troop meeting with us. We presented her with a card everyone signed as well as some fun Girl Scout gifts she'll remember us by. You WILL be missed!

Cookie Information

Cookies have been given to each GS by total order

Each Girl Scout (supervised by a parent) will need to separate her own orders per customer using her Order Card.

Consider printing a “Thank You” from the littlebrowniebakers web site.
go to side tab: CLIP ART then to GRAPHICS & DESKTOP tab; go to page 18 or 19 for Thank You

Goal set to have cookies delivered and money collected in the next 7-10 days.

Collect amount due at time of cookie delivery (checks payable to Girl Scout Troop 9691)

Do not let your collected money accumulate; turn in (to Teri) in a timely manner.

Money is due no later than Monday, March 1, 2010.

ALSO~ since we are not doing booth sales this year, we do not have a large surplus of cookies. In the event a customer wants to order more cookies, suggest they go to the littlebrowniebakers website and click on the "Cookie Locater" to find a booth closest to them.

We will be donating our "Gift of Caring" boxes after our next troop meeting.

Thank You Leaders for all your help with signing out the cookies!

World Thinking Day 2010 Kick Off

Our troop meeting this week kicked off World Thinking Day 2010 which is officially February 22. The World Thinking Day theme for 2010 is girls worldwide say "together we can end extreme poverty and hunger" ; the aim is to raise awareness among everyone about the situation and improve the lives of the poorest people in the world.

Our first activity was a game that Girl Scouts in Zimbabwe play called "Cabbage".

The girls wander around the room and when the leaders calls out ‘Cabbage!’, all the players must curl up in a tight ball like a cabbage and close their eyes. The leader covers one of the players with a blanket then asks the other players to open their eyes. The players must work out which player is under the blanket. The first one to call out the right name is the winner! Since we have a large group of girls we covered two girls with a blanket per game.

After our fun game we sat down and got serious, discussing this year's World Thinking Day theme of extreme poverty and hunger in the world.

• Every 3.6 seconds one person dies of starvation. Usually it is a child under the age of 5.


• More than 30 per cent of children in developing countries – about 600 million – live on less than US $1.25 a day.


• Basic needs such as a house to live in, food to eat, fresh water to drink, and a place to bath or go "potty" are not met in areas of extreme poverty.

We broke into groups by level and viewed photos of extreme poverty. The girls were to look at each picture and share what they saw and how they felt. This was a somber time, but a time the girls saw with their eyes what poverty looks like and hopefully realize the truth the people live without the things we so easily take for granted. When we got back together in our large group we re-capped our observations. Ask your Girl Scout what they learned and how they felt when they saw these pictures.

Blessing Boxes

After we discussed what extreme poverty is and looks like, we talked about how we can make a difference and do something to help. We created "blessing boxes" the girls decorated with hearts and flowers; these boxes will serve as a place to collect "loose CHANGE" to help make a "CHANGE" in the lives of children who live in extreme poverty.

We are asking our Troop 9691 Girl Scout families give up “a treat” of some sort each day and save $1.00 a day for two weeks in your “blessing box” OR to collect “loose CHANGE” over the next two weeks in your Girl Scout’s “blessing box” to help make a positive “CHANGE”.

We ask each Girl Scout bring the contents of their “blessing box” to the next troop meeting. If you are not comfortable having your Girl Scout bring cash to school, you (parent) may leave your contribution with Mary at the front desk and I (Teri) will collect it prior to the troop meeting. From the proceeds collected, we will make a donation to UNICEF (Children’s Emergency Fund in Haiti) and bless them with what we collect.

FYI: Haiti is among the poorest countries in the Western hemisphere before the earthquake and even more devastated now after the earth quake.

Fun, but not funny...

The leaders (Novia and Lisa) constructed a shack made of cardboard to show the girls the reality that many families in other countries live in houses they construct out of whatever they can find to provide them shelter. These shacks have no electricity, no running water and are built straight on the dirt (no foundation). In times of a storm, these shelters are very unstable.

The girls had fun getting their picture taken in our "shack", but the reality of people in this world actually living this way is not funny (the girls realize this). The girls all have big hearts and realize how blessed they are to have their basic needs and much more met.

At the end of our troop meeting, Junior Girl Scout, Karrah, shared her personal story of living in extreme poverty when she was an orphan in Russia. She was adopted around age two, but as an infant and toddler, she lived in conditions that were extreme. She shared with the girls how thankful she is for "FAMILY" and that "stuff" doesn't matter... the love of family and having basic needs met are what's most important. Karrah... thank you for sharing your personal experience.

Cookie Pre-Order Updates

We are so proud of each Girl Scout in Troop 9691! As a team we had a pre-order amount of 1,613 packages! This is over our goal of 1,300 by 313. Great job girls!

Many of the girls at our troop meeting asked "who sold the most?"... I didn't have the information sheet with me at our meeting, but wanted to answer this question as it was asked a number of times. I do have to emphasize, each girl did an awesome job and whether our girl scout sold 12 boxes or 112, we are very proud of you!

"Who sold the most?" ... here's the breakdown of our top three sellers per level.

DAISY:
#1) Allyson B. (131)
#2) Makayla (80)
#3) Kylie (79)

BROWNIE:
#1) Jennifer (250) SUPER PATCH achiever!!!
#2) Meredith (201)
#3) Jessie (119)

JUNIOR:
#1) Bethany (55)
#2) Becky (54)
#3) Karrah (51)

Cookie deliveries will be February 13-18 at which time the girls will collect the money due from their customers.

What A Cookie Can Do

Thank You for Supporting Girl Scouts!